nfl BS

They do attend camp

 

You got my point though. I am sure they can find more than capable men or women and pay them handsomely even if it isn’t for the full year. The NFL makes plenty in profit. They need better refereeing on the field and they definitely need accountability.

 

All valid to a degree. I was trying to make a correlation from jeh's posted article, the time these ref's put in and any professional career they may have outside of the NFL. Pre merger, post merger, and how the game has grown. As stated the pay they make as ref's is still higher than the national wage average, but going FT how would that compare to professions they may already be engaged in? Have no idea what or if these individuals can or do have full time financial interests outside of the NFL, and compensation is of course just one aspect. Time invested outside of regular season is just semantics, surely training, conferences, rule updates, etc. would all be part of the employment status, it really comes down to what the owners want to do, the investment required, and the dedication of those involved to get it done.

I think FT for ref's is desirable, and it may help, but you still are going to have the human element in every game and that's something for all of us amateurs need to understand as we argue the mistakes seen while watching the game in super slow motion following the game. Crucial mistakes are still going to be made, hearts broken and bucks lost for those who bet, lol.

 

All good points. I do think if they went to hire a full time ref for these positions you would not be hiring Doctors and Lawyers. Those people would stay with their professions. You would have dedicated staff for these positions and I’m sure the NFL can more than afford to pay a nice salary plus benefits and wages. I think that is the least of their issues. I understand their jobs are hard and there is the human element. Its the calls that are left up to the discretion of the referees judgment that are hurting the game, because most often these individuals usually err on the side of player safety to a fault and to the determinant of the game and the quality of the game and at times these calls can have huge impacts in the outcomes of games. I personally believe they are being irrational with some of these judgment calls with the expectation of not taking into consideration the speed of a play and the natural physiology of a play and the human body, meaning when a guy rushes the Qb and is bringing him to the ground it is nearly impossible at times for that defender to adjust in mid motion to prevent their body weight from falling on the QB. They are asking guys to contort their bodies in unatural ways. I'm not sure why the QB gets protected in that way anyway. The RB’s and wide receivers don’t.

I understand trying to limit head shots but just falling on the Qb as you both are going to the ground is a bad rule in my mind. I get the QB can hurt his ribs but it is a natural part of tackling somebody. Lets be honest here, the NFL doesn’t truly care about player safety. They care about protecting the star position and star players because when those star players or QB’s go down it effects TV viewership and thus future revenue. If they cared about actual player safety they would protect the defensive players just as much as they do the offensive players. In addition they wouldn’t keep adding more games and extending the season or playing on Thursday nights or flying teams over to Europe to play and coming back on a short week to play again. Soft tissue injuries are way up in the league not to mention lower body injuries because these guys are now getting hit low all of the time and they aren’t getting enough rest between games to allow their body to recuperate. You listen to the players they are complaining about the low hits as a result of the heavy emphasis of protecting the head, they are complaining about too many games, thursday night games and overseas games. The NFL won’t change that or listen because they don’t want to change the exposure of the product because it generates more revenue for them.

Bottom line the quality of play in the NFL has diminished both in how the games are officiated and the actual play on the field. Guys can’t nor are they even taught how to tackle anymore. The emphasis has completely swung to the QB and the Receivers and the passing game. As a result defenses have focused more on putting pressure on the QB and generating turnovers. I for one miss smash mouth football and hitting receivers over the middle. The completions today are so easy. If the ball isn’t completed on the play it seems like almost every time a PI penalty is called. Teams look at the analytics now and take into consideration on third long and throwing it deep they have about a 70% chance of either a completion or a PI. It's made the game very frustrating to watch. This is why I firmly believe they need professional Referee’s and there needs to be a standard and some accountability. Having faux Referee’s who just do this for side work is quite frankly a convenient excuse for the NFL now.

 

3 refs who did Kansas City games just got fired

More on the subject

https://operations.nfl.com/officiating/nfl-officials-preparing-for-success/

NFL referees are accurate on 98.9% of calls much better than baseball

 

I don’t know how they can determine they are that accurate when alot of the calls in the NFL are left up to interpretation and are very subjective. Calls like PI, Roughing the Passer and even holding calls are all judgment calls by the refs and quite subjective. Even the pre penalty snaps with how the offensive lineman line up was a debacle last year by the Refs. Its not easy to standardize these things when so much of it is based on the Refs judgement.

 

Tell that to the NBA.

 

Hulk Hampton?

 

Ok

So how will this change if the refs are “full” time which fit the most part they already are

 

Well with the Refs being full-time this becomes their primary source of revenue. With it being their primary source of revenue they are going to want to remain employed. If there is a standard set and a weekly evaluation with some accountability involved that can effect their income your going to get their absolute best effort every game. A big part of making this more accurate and fair is to have checks and balances and actually use those through proper replay evaluation and reversing calls. They need to evaluate what actually is and isn’t a PI and roughing the passer penalty. The Refs are egregious in over calling these penalties to the extent is waters down the quality of the game play and has a profound impact on the outcome of the game. Something needs to be figured out here. It's to the point now where offense are taking advantage of this in every game. Finally it should be mandatory that the Refs do interviews after games so they face the heat a little for bad calls and they face the scrutiny of the public. I’m not saying tar and feather these guys but right now there is no accountability.

 

They already do all of this

 

They do some of this but they can do a much better job of doing it. They definitely don’t interview Refs. Doubt that will ever happen.

 

What do you mean they don’t interview refs

 

They talk to the quasi retired ref during the game but I have never seen officials interviews of field refs after an actual game. Am I missing something?

 

Are you talkin*about having reporters interview them

That’s a really bad idea

 

Yes it certainly could be. But its one way to hold them accountable.

 

The nfl holds them accountable

 

Are they fined or reprimanded for lousy penalties or missing calls? The bottom line is the NFL rules should be geared towards protecting the integrity and authenticity of the play on the field. Unfortunately it isn’t, it is geared toward player safety but not in the interest of actual player safety but in the interest of protecting specific assets that generate revenue and tv viewership. So they go overboard in protecting QB’s and WR’s etc. to the detriment to the quality of onfield play. These Refs have basically been instructed and empowered to protect the QB at all costs and boy have they used that power. They also have enforced the tules to effect higher scoring. Because higher scoring and big plays increase tv viewership. Unfortunately it hasn’t always resulted in higher scoring, it has just resulted in the quality of the play being watered down and the authenciticy and purity of the end product being affected.

 

You have moved the goal posts so many times I feel like we are playing checkers