How to fix the officiating, if you think it needs it.

Okay, all of you who constantly complain about blown calls, if you were commissioner how would you fix it? Stick to solutions and their possible drawbacks, please.
Personally I say keep it the way it is except for reviewing personal foul calls only. That would not slow the game down much as you only get personal fouls called a couple times a game at most. Of course you can only review a call where a flag is thrown. The flag can be picked up for two reasons, if replay shows no foul was committed or replay shows the player who was originally flagged acted in retaliation so there should be offsetting penalties.

also i like the college system a lot better than the NFL's. separate replay official, all plays reviewable. targeting penalties (hits to the head) are confirmed via replay. really doesn't slow the game down that much.


not sure what are the consequences are for missed calls..... all i know is the ref that mike tomlin blocked got demoted or whatever......

REVIEW ERRRRRRYTHING!!

More refs

Younger refs

Booth refs

Ipads for each official just in case they need to clarify a rule and maybe for replays

Get rid of gray area rules such as P.I. Make it so if there is contact, period, its a foul. None of that "ball was uncatchable" or incidental contact b******t...

Fire Goodell.

1. Allow coaches to review any play of their choosing. It is absolutely ridiculous that teams get off on a "technicality" because a coach can't review the play. A great example is from the NFCCG. Ridiculous that they couldn't review the fumble and recovery by Bowman or review that the guy hit Lee's plant foot. Coaches only get 2 challenges anyways... so why not open up every single play? Especially when they automatically review turnovers and scores.
2. Keep the current grading system in place for officials. The refs that get a bad score with lots of negative marks are fired and replaced. This may seem harsh but the current system of simply not allowing them to officiate deep into the playoffs is a joke. Does a guy who gets $78,000-200,000 really care if he doesn't get to officiate playoff games?? Or will he care if he stops getting that easy $78,000+ salary per year? I absolutely believe that this will eliminate the problem of favorable officiating towards certain teams such as GB, Seattle, NE, Denver, and NO. Is a fanboy referee really going to risk a nice salary to help his boys win? I'd like to think not.
3. Lastly, eliminate the idea that rules are open for interpretation of the current official. The idea of what pass interference and holding is should not change from week to week. You can watch one game and see your team get flagged for PI or holding under certain conditions and then the next week the opponent can do the exact same thing to your team and not get penalized... that is infuriating.

Player committing penalty is to be removed from field of play.

5 yard yard penalty = 1 down with 10 men (no substitutions)
10 yard penalty = 30 seconds (game clock seconds), same 10 men remain (no substitutions) unless there is a change of possession.
15 yard penalty = 60 seconds (game clock), same 10 men remain on field (no substitutions) unless there is a change of possession.

It would make things interesting at least.

Originally posted by dave_n_ruth:
Player committing penalty is to be removed from field of play.

5 yard yard penalty = 1 down with 10 men (no substitutions)
10 yard penalty = 30 seconds (game clock seconds), same 10 men remain (no substitutions) unless there is a change of possession.
15 yard penalty = 60 seconds (game clock), same 10 men remain on field (no substitutions) unless there is a change of possession.

It would make things interesting at least.

I have to give you credit for coming up with a new twist. Sounds like this would be a good gimmick for the next start-up football league to try.

Lol, well if you want people would take penalties seriously. Suddenly the NFL would go from 15 flags a game to less than 5. Teams with no penalties would have a much higher probability of winning.

Originally posted by dave_n_ruth:
Lol, well if you want people would take penalties seriously. Suddenly the NFL would go from 15 flags a game to less than 5. Teams with no penalties would have a much higher probability of winning.

Your dip s**t team won the bowl leading the league in penalties.

Actually call defensive PI and not allow "they do it so often how do I flag them almost every play ?". If it's a flag it's a flag.

I think we all know what I'm talking about.

NFLN Says: How would team reporters fix officiating?
NFLN Says: How would players fix officiating?

"First thing is, they should be full-time. If they were full-time then they have to be fully invested in the job. It's their livelihood, you know? A lot of those guys they have corporate jobs, they're bank presidents or whatever and working an NFL game is a part-time thing. They are the only part-time people on the field. If it was their job, their full-time job, I think it's just different how they go about it. I think in any job, you can tell the people who don't really need the job to get by."

Asked what officials should do in offseason if they were full-time (a familiar complaint from owners when the topic is raised):

"Work on their craft. That what's we do. That's what coaches do. That's what scouts do, everybody in this league. And if we don't perform, we're out. It should be the same way; they should have to fix the mistakes they make or at least look at the mistakes in the offseason and talk about what happened. It's terrible the NFL is so huge, so big, and you have plays like Sunday [in the Giants-Redskins game]. That's just terrible. What if that's for home field? What if that's the Super Bowl? You gonna just send a memo and say it was a mistake and you're sorry?"

-- Anonymous Player 2
"I would say maybe be more consistent, everybody. I think just in general the calls across the league should all be even. Some refs' calls are real good, and some are bad like hits on the quarterback. It should just be the same across the league. ... I'd say the biggest [inconsistency] right now is the hits on the quarterback. It seems to me that you can't really hit them anywhere. Some refs will call it if you hit them in the chest and slide up, some won't. Some refs will call a hand to the helmet, some won't."

-- Anonymous Player 3

"I'm getting a staff in the [press box], so every bad call we're going to call down and reverse those plays. I don't want to say I'm blaming the officials, because they're only calling what they've been coached up to call. But we're going to get another crew to kind of back them up. It's not going to cost that much, we've got the money to do it. Well, I shouldn't say 'we.' They've got the money to do it.

"Any bad call would get reversed. They would have the ultimate authority in the booth to overturn what the official call on the field. For the most part, the downside would be the games take a little longer. But who cares? ... The offense is finding a way to get a leg up on everything we're doing. We're reactors on defense and they are taking advantage of these rules. I'll trade a little bit longer of a game for more right."

-- Anonymous Player 4

http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/104997/nfl-nation-says-improving-officiating

They could remove the subjectivity of the calls they didn't review. It would make them easier to spot. Here is an idea that should not change the scoring, go back to the late 70's rules for blocking regarding holding and use of hands. A blocker cannot allow his hands to extend outward from his body and cannot grasp any part of an opposing players body or jersey. Off course this makes it very difficult to pass block, so to make it even, a defender may not touch a receiver any time before the receiver touches the ball. No more jamming the receiver for the first 5 yards or touching of any kind until the ball gets there. The problem is there are too many judgement calls with gray areas, it would be much easier if the rules were black and white. Supposedly a defender can hand check or bump a receiver after 5 yards as
long as he doesn't disrupt the route. Also as mentioned before, the call of the "uncatchable pass", tough judgement calls that no two officials will call exactly the same.

The NFL needs to do an automatic review of the "hit on a defenseless receiver" penalties and "roughing the quarterback" penalties. I watched a lot of games this year, and based on the replays, the referees got that call wrong 50% of the time. Both of these penalty calls killed the Niners this year in several games, and many of the calls would have been reversed if there was a booth reply allowed.

Bring back the replacement refs

Originally posted by Young2Rice:

Originally posted by dave_n_ruth:
Lol, well if you want people would take penalties seriously. Suddenly the NFL would go from 15 flags a game to less than 5. Teams with no penalties would have a much higher probability of winning.

Your dip s**t team won the bowl leading the league in penalties.

I am so glad you pointed that out to me, because I really had no idea.

Anyway...the problem is the officials still will only call so many penalties a game. 15 a game is normal, but it can go as high as 20 or so. They pick and choose, and currently there isn't much anyone can do about it. If they called everything then they run into problems with game length, which is an issue for the networks scheduling. Fairness takes a backseat to revenue. Same reasons baseball was so against replay, and why they keep adding new rules to speed up the games.