For the first time, the NFL will have full time officials. The officiating, as of late, has been very questionable. The outrage mostly started when the NFL used "replacement" refs, which led to the Seattle vs. Green Bay debacle. Since then, there has been a much requested overhaul of the officiating process. Since the Golden Tate touchdown/interception play, we have seen such issues as the Dez Bryant catch/no catch, the obvious pass interference that wasn't called in the Falcons and Seahawks regular season game, and the most egregious, failing to call any personal foul hit to the head that Cam Newton receives, or any other hit on him for that matter.
What is their answer? Hire full time referees. While this isn't a bad idea, I highly doubt this will fix ANY of the problems. Unless part of being full time is working on defining the rules, and watching where they messed up, nothing will change. After that Cowboys vs. Packers playoff game in 2015, the NFL is still questioning what a catch really is. It looked clear to me that Dez caught it. I'm not here to debate that the Cowboys should have won the game, but that the referees did not know the actual rules of the game. That is the problem. It's not about hours logged, or even pay. It's about education.
Consistency is one of the things that all sports fans look for. If the officials made bad calls consistently across the board, it would be an issue more with rules and interpretation of those rules. But that's not even consistent. The referees in some cases seem to ignore the rules that are in place, and interpret what they want the rule to be in others. Cam Newton shouldn't have to get killed for the officials to throw the flag. Because he is so big, and so athletic, they treat him differently, and that's not fair.
We don't need full time refs, we need better, more consistent refs.
Thanks for reading!
Dan Snyder
No comments:
Post a Comment