Posted on 01/21/2019 9:32:57 AM PST by Red Badger
After dramatic overtime wins, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are headed to their ninth (!) Super Bowl together, to face off against young Jared Goff and Sean McVay. But the talk today is all about an obvious, game-deciding blown call, and what the NFL must do to address an officiating crisis.
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The story this morning should be, would be, Rams coach Sean McVay taking a franchise that had missed the postseason 12 consecutive times to the Super Bowl in just his second year, and going right through the raucous Superdome to do it. The story this morning should be, would be, Patriots quarterback Tom Bradys incomparable brilliance in the face of a worthy young challenger at Arrowhead.
But thats not where we are on this Monday morning.
As has been the case, to a lesser degree, on other Monday mornings this year, you woke up today to more talk about a bad call in a football game. And you should. Because what happened in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday was as bad as it gets, the NFLs worst nightmare come alive after a year in which the officials were criticized constantly. A terrible officiating failure cost a team a trip to the Super Bowl.
Thats no exaggeration either. There was 1:48 showing when Saints quarterback Drew Brees feathered the ball down the right sideline to Tommylee Lewis, who looked back for it, only to take a crushing head shot from Rams corner Nickell Robey-Coleman, who was on time for the hit like the Giants used to be on time for Tom Coughlins meetings: about five minutes early.
(Excerpt) Read more at si.com ...
They coudn't take me to that nasty s**t hole in a complementary fully stocked stretch limousine.
No joke.
Were going to be fine without you. Youre likely a 49er fan anyway
You have fun watching BLM VS Antifa!
Knock yourself out!
I think the fans participating is a little different than the opposing coach using a tool that the officials use for the game. This is just my own opinion but he just reminds me of the sneaky little kid who just loves to annoy people he does not like.
I can see that, but there are still many conservatives I dont like. And I mean every-day people. Oh, and Bill OReilly.
It is a judgment call and not subject to review.
“If it were to turn to a group of officials who work hard and are trained well, these mistakes would still happen, but far less likely.”
This is one area where they are not willing to pay for. There is no NFL official that does this for a living. Officials like Walt Coleman whose real job is a dairy farmer or Ed Hochuli who is an attorney. Then there’s Gene Steratore who runs a sanitary supply company and Jerome Boger whose an underwriter for Allstate. What they have in common is they are all referees for the NFL, white hats that control the crews they work with. But they aren’t professional officials.
And men like them have been doing the job since the 1940’s and about the only thing that has changed is the league interpretations of rules and how to define calls. A few of the things are there to make the game more interesting to the fan, not to regulate the game.
For instance, what is making space with a hand battle between a defensive back and a pass receiver? I wonder what got the “clip zone” so defined. Why did the league determine that blocking at the line play is legal so they allow wide receivers to block within the 10 yard area for a receiver screen against db’s which violates the 10 yard rule? Can team followers yell to make it hard for the offence to hear their signals or not? Everyone of those determinations is inconsistent with the rules but allowed. Because it makes the fan happy and puts butts in the seats and gets their jersies bought. It’s all about money and the league is going to get away with anything they can to promote the money. Always have.
Is it good financially to have a team from the far east of the US playing against a team from the far west in their big money game? One can only speculate.
rwood
I think the NFL Competition Committee may allow for a additional challenge flag with no restrictions on type of challenge in the last 90 seconds of each half.
No prob ... if the rams can only win by cheating ... so be it, NASCAR starts in 30 days.
You are incorrect — there are now full time NFL officials — one of whom is Brad Allen of which there is no finer official or man of integrity, I know him personally. The NDL has hired full time officials and may transition ultimately to those positions. What is important to know is that each of the aforementioned officials has a masters degree or better which used to be the requirement if I am not mistaken because of the complexities of the rules.
Disagree. If I could Id buy an apt building near the stadium right now, I would.
If I had that kind of money, I’d never invest in CA. Not at this point in it’s history. The leftist will see that apartment building as their pay day and or force you to rent to homeless and paroles. Just wait until your new governor and his socialist extremist start ramping up. Good luck.
Youre right about that. Its tough to see SoCal as any place to actually invest. Lack of water, lack of respect for property owners, horrible governments state and local. Worship of the downtrodden and the illegals.
....whatever.
Okay, I stand corrected. For the 2018-19 season the league opened up 24 of the 127 slots for full time officials being used as an 8th field official. So the remainder of the slots were part time.
The actual job description reads that the application person has no specific educational requirements to become an NFL referee, though it is expected, that they would have passed high school and would have a bachelors degree. NFL referees need to have at least 10 years of officiating experience in football games. Of these 10 years, 5 years should have been spent officiating major college level games. A major criterion for getting hired as an NFL referee is that they should be in an excellent physical condition and should be members of accredited football associations or have prior football experience as players or coaches.
So calling an official full time has the same criteria for employment as the part time folks for the purposes of coverage. And they are not filling any field slots as the 8th position is an addition to the crew’s assignments.
When I was calling National Federation and NCAA before my health went south. I was friends with a few of the NFL men on the west coast crews. I haven’t discovered anyone among them that wasn’t a good man. But there’s a difference between calling things the way they think it should be called and how the league wants it done. There are a number of types of calls that the league wants to have happen so they can get the stadiums filled. And the officials are employees, whether part of full time.
Officiating football is a game of experience. Learning how to read the situation, get the best position to see and beyond, and being decisive is a majority of the need and time on the field along with good clinics are the answer. But the most important thing is to call the game the way the product is being presented. And as long as the league insists upon having so much say in determining what is and is not going to be called, there are going to be some problems. The “league” as a whole, is made up of owners that like money. It’s their league and their teams and they determine the product. And it is a product, not a sport, believe me. It’s there to make money, first and foremost, just like Walmart.
rwood
The refs are there to ensure the right team wins, and barring that do their best to keep the game competitive...
Doh! I hate being right all the time. :)
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