Officiating crews, huh?
After a couple of high profile incidents in stand-alone, prime time games – most notably a dreadfully officiated final drive during the Chiefs-Packers game on Sunday night that culminated in a (somewhat) clear pass interference no call on former Packer, Marquez Valdes-Scantling – NFL officials have become the latest group on the hotseat.
Per NFL insider, Dianna Russini, it seems like there has been some grumblings from the head coaching ranks of NFL franchises about the inconsistency in officiating for games in the National Football League this season.
NFL viewership stock is up, but NFL officiating stock is low. This isn’t a new issue, but the criticism seems to be the loudest it’s ever been. The league wants to see more consistency week to week from crew to crew. Many head coaches believe there is too big of a discrepancy…
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) December 9, 2023
So What Concerns Do NFL Teams Have About Officiating Crews?
Well, coaches are getting more and more aggravated at the increasingly different ways that different referees see the game, beyond a small difference in interpretation here and there. One head coach states:
“Some crews call a very tight game at the line of scrimmage regarding alignment and false starts. Others tend to be more relaxed. In 12 games, Brad Rogers has called 39 offensive holds while Bill Vinovich has called 20. That’s a big discrepancy.”
And he is right. For one lead official to call almost double the amount of penalties in one area of the game, especially something as comparatively subjective, or at least not clear-cut, as the false start – where the officiating crew was once again in deep water on Thursday night – is not good for the parity of the sport.
It seems like, at some point, there must come a resolution for these referees, such that there can be a clear consensus – plus or minus one or two exceptional circumstances – about what constitutes legal and illegal play.
It does feel like there is some progress being made towards this though, as Russini adds on a later tweet:
You may not know this.
The league distributes a weekly officiating video to every team. This video discusses trends and officiating topics. Coaches can see what the officials are being instructed every week. https://t.co/lQOZ5PUwyy— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) December 10, 2023
At least there is some communication between the league and the teams regarding decisions being made on the field. Especially at this time of year, where one big play could be the difference between the post-season and an early vacation; a home game with the crowd behind you or a cold, deafening road game in the snow.
Hopefully there is a reasonable resolution, and officials can get on the same page as a.) the NFL coaches and b.) themselves.
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