“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
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.