August 9, 20179 yr The NFL Referees Association (NFLRA) voted on Wednesday to employ full-time officials in a move that many have been hoping for over the past several seasons. The vote itself will allow the NFLRA to employ 21-24 full-time officials with the process of selecting them beginning immediately. It’s long been a contentious issue within the league. The NFL’s revenue was slated to surpass the $13 billion mark in 2016. Even then, the idea of employing full-time officials seemed foreign to those involved in the day-to-day operations. That’s no longer going to be the case. With upwards of two dozen officials working full time to hone their craft, it’s highly likely that the product we see from officials will improve vastly moving forward. If so, it’s definitely a good thing for the NFL and its on-field viability.
August 9, 20179 yr Author I am wondering how it will make the game officiating better. The main thing I see is the study of and grading of a game just officiated by the FT officials crew and the in depth knowledge they can gain on the next week's opponent. The latter being tricky, but could be very powerful.Knowing tendancies of teams and watching individual players every play will give insight on their habits, methods and advantages they get. They can deterermine if that has changed games. In other words, do some players get by with things more than others, which I believe they do unintentionally, and maybe stop some of the garbage. Just my quick initial thoughts.
August 10, 20179 yr I am wondering how it will make the game officiating better. The main thing I see is the study of and grading of a game just officiated by the FT officials crew and the in depth knowledge they can gain on the next week's opponent. The latter being tricky, but could be very powerful.Knowing tendancies of teams and watching individual players every play will give insight on their habits, methods and advantages they get. They can deterermine if that has changed games. In other words, do some players get by with things more than others, which I believe they do unintentionally, and maybe stop some of the garbage. Just my quick initial thoughts. It's going to lead to a lot more penalties at first.
August 10, 20179 yr Author It's going to lead to a lot more penalties at first. Maybe, it seems logical. I hope the big changes are consistency of calls with PI and holding plus the dirty stuff. They both seem so arbitrary. For example, I have never understood how a hold 20 yards behind a play, that has no affect on the play should be called. It seems to happen on pass plays a lot. The dirty uncalled for stuff of some players and the Bengals have one of those in Tez should be watched really closely. I see nothing wrong with the official on Saturday night bringing that player and head coach into a room, show him what has to stop and they will watch for. ...and if it happens you're out of this game and the next. Game film over several games will tell whether it is a patterned behavior or isolated stupid mistake.
August 11, 20179 yr This does nothing to fix the problem. They now have "full time refs" yet still allow them to hold other jobs. That has been the problem all along because they don't aren't 100% studying the game etc. it will have very little effect.
August 14, 20179 yr I don't think this will necessarily improve things. It may but may not. How many "good" refs that have full time jobs they like will quit reffing because they don't want it to be their only job. Some of these guys have really good jobs outside of football. Some of the calls we criticize (PI and holding) are just so hard to see with the naked eye at full speed. I don't know if being full time will help refs be any better at making them.
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