The Fix for Bad Officiating in the NFL

Tom Brady drops back late during the 2001 AFC Championship game between the Patriots and Raiders. He's looking, looking, but can't find anyone open. He gives up on passing and moves the ball down to either try and scramble or protect the ball from an incoming sack. Either way, millions of fans see Charles Woodson sack Brady and clearly create a fumble - Raiders recover. The fumble recovery should have sealed the game for the Raiders except that it wasn't ruled a fumble. Somehow millions of fans saw a clear fumble, but the officials called it an incomplete pass. Brady went on to win the game and the Super Bowl that year and the "Tuck Rule" was created.

"The truth isn't the truth."

Ever since the 2001 AFC Championship game, the NFL has come up with rules that are so convoluted and arbitrary that the selective application of the rules scream for conspiracy theories that the refs and the NFL are complicit in ensuring certain teams win or lose. I actually don't think refs are biased in any way, but close games are almost always heavily decided by a few key calls by the refs. The fan base of whichever team happens to get fewer of the key calls will scream bias. The problem isn't bias. The problem is, in the words of Rudy Giuliani "The truth isn't the truth."

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The referee are, for the most part, incredibly good at making calls in real-time. How many times have you watched a football game and thought 'No way that call is correct' only to see it in slow motion and sure enough the referee made the correct call? Their view on the field gives them a distinct advantage over us watching the game on television. Despite what we may think when a marginal call hurts our team, referees have trained hard for their jobs and have years of experience.

“our unconscious reactions come out of a locked room, and we can't look inside that room. but with experience we become expert at using our behavior and our training to interpret - and decode - what lies behind our snap judgment and first impressions.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

If we believe NFL referees are good, then why is officiating ruining the game? Instead of officials being the mostly-invisible hand that ensures the game is played safely and fairly, referees have become the backhand that selectively decides when to apply the harshest interpretations of obscure rules. The most egregious and memorable examples happen in primetime games, but we see this over and over in just about every NFL game. The competition between two teams and the flow of the game is interrupted and often decided by questionable, if not dubious calls. Replays should have mostly eliminated the problem, but they only seem to exacerbate the issue.

Replays are a good concept. As good as referees are, they are human and make mistakes. There should be recourse for coaches and league officiating to correct egregiously bad officiating, but officials keep bouncing between the harshest application of league rules and the spirit of the game. The inconsistency has completely befuddled coaches and fans alike. What is and is not pass interference, a catch, clear and conclusive evidence, and possession of the football remain a mystery that seems to depend on the direction of the wind. The lack of consistency and transparency is a direct reflection of the poor job done by Vice President of Officiating Alberto 'Al' Riveron.

Lay NFL fans are often baffled by the officiating. The crews in the booth are baffled by the officiating. NFL coaches and players are baffled by the officiating. Even the former heads of officiating can't explain many of the decisions made by officials. What's the fix?

“I really have no comment on that, that’s really just their judgment” Al Riveron was quoted as saying after the past two Heads of Officiating (Dean Blandino and Mike Pereira) disagreed with the call following a play that appeared to be a New York Jets touchdown, but was ruled a fumble out of bounds resulting in a touchback and change of possession for the New England Patriots.

Al Riveron needs to be fired. His tenure has produced some of the most memorable officiating controversies in NFL history. The product on the field has been made far worse by his guidance in creating, implementing, and executing the rules of the game. One of the hallmarks of national stores and restaurants is consistency across their brand. A Whopper in New Mexico will look, taste, and feel exactly like a Whopper in Pennsylvania. Riveron's officiating crews are woefully unprepared to call a fair and consistently from game-to-game and week-to-week. A new Head of Officiating needs to come in to revise the rule book and bring consistency back to officiating.

Replays also need an overhaul. It's one thing for a bad call to be made on the field. It's a completely different issue when good calls are overturned or bad calls are left standing after officials get a chance to look at it in slow motion from multiple angles. There's still going to be a level of subjectivity to replay officiating, but how many times have we been left wondering how relatively intelligent people with years of experience can view the video that we saw on a broadcast and come away with the conclusions that they did? The most simple answer to fixing the replay has already been tested.

The American Alliance of Football(AAF) was only around for the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee largely due to mismanagement and poor talent, but their process for replays was a significant contribution that the NFL should pick up. The process for replays was fast, consistent, and gave the viewer insight into what the officials were seeing. Viewers may not have necessarily agreed with the call, but at least they could understand what the officials were seeing and have an appreciation for the call that was ultimately made on the field. In addition to educating the viewer on the play and the process that went into the call, listening in to the officials created something that NFL officiating is greatly lacking right now - accountability.

Where are these terrible calls coming from? New York or the on-field official? We don't know. We don't know who is making some of these calls or why. Al Riveron has made an effort to explain why some of these calls have been made on the field after games, but the explanations often fall flat to put it nicely. All too often the explanations sound like a convoluted mess meant to confuse the fans instead of explain a good call. There is a clear problem when the Head of Officiating can't satisfactorily articulate a call well after the fact.

There are a lot of issues with officiating in the NFL, but the referees aren't to blame. The officiating mess starts with Al Riveron and the lack of transparency that goes into the replay process.