How do we fix the officiating?

[podsox]

the biggest problem is how they treat defensive backs. it is nearly impossible to play the position now. a ref can call illegal contact, defensive holding, or pi on every play. the fact that offensives get rewarded for terrible passes is what drives me crazy. PI should be waved off on underthrown deep balls.

 

[Cyder]

make full time refs, where that is their only job. that would be a start. With the money Ol' roger makes yearly, no one can tell me the NFL cant afford it.
While we are at it. Don't split up crews during the playoffs. They are a team just like the teams on the field. best teams ref the playoffs & best team from the playoffs (least amount of mistakes) refs the superbowl. (kinda like their own Playoffs so to speak) if they feel they need to cut a ref in the offseason to get better so be it.

If they're full time what do they do the rest of the year? There aren't other games to officiate.

Completely agree on the not plitting crews. They'll need to give the refs a few more bucks to have it taken out of the collective bargining agreement.

I also would put certain fitness benchmarks in. A 48 year old guy trying to run down the field with Odell Beckam and Revis is gonna have a bit of an issue keeping up.

 

[Davis_Mike]

These ideas won't work:

-The refs will never agree to full time status. See the last lockout as proof.
-A microchip in the football won't speed up or correct goal line calls. Refs will still need to determine whether a player was down before the ball crossed the goal line. A microchip won't change this.
-Changing PI to a 15 yard penalty is a terrible idea. Why reward a player or team who got beat for what would have been a 50 yard TD had the defender not interfered with the receiver?

Here are my suggestions:

-Centralize replay.
-Centralized replay officials make the call on whether to change the call on the field or not.
-Keep crews together for the playoffs & SB.
-Make PI & personal fouls reviewable within the current 2+1 coaches challenge system.
-All PI & personal fouls under 2 minutes are automatically reviewed.
-Make officials more accountable for poor performance & replace the worst offenders.

 

[MrS]

The fields need to all be artificial led turf so that all boundaries would change color of a player steps out. The field would also highlight exactly where the ball should be spotted after every play. The chips in the ball would interface with the field and microphones that would pick up the sound of the whistle. Computers would calculate exactly where the ball was, or how far the ball had gone when forward motion stopped. This would eliminate the human element from these parts of the game and speed the game up. No measuring, no reviews to see when a player stepped out. They could also put sensors in knees and butt area so the field can detect when a player is down by contact.

Sounds ridiculous, I know.

 

[Oldschool739]

First off, lets try to keep this limited to the overall officiating league wide and not specifics about any particular game. We all know we are less than satisfied with the officiating. I love a great game and very seldom does it all boil down to the zebra's. But when it does I get really disjointed.

It has been suggested that the NFL who is making billions, spend what it takes to make the officials full time. That would be a good start. I heard Mike Pereira on the tube suggesting they at least make the 17 referees full time. That would be a good start.

During the off season they could be in film study and training so stuff is called consistently the same across the league. During mini camps and spring they could visit all the teams and go over the rules with them and explain any changes and show points of emphasis.

It is beyond overdue for the league to do this. The integrity of the game is at stake here.

Very simple, Geez....."FIRE GOODELL" and hire someone smart enough to put a 3 man crew in a monitor room to correct these refs mistakes on the field as soon as they call them, and honest enough to actually give a rabbit pellet about the game and the teams getting a fair shake.....If it were up to me, I'd tar and feather that duck lipped piece of garbage, put a statue of him like that in every stadium for all to enjoy.....