Louis Badolato
Lieutenant General
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2005
- Messages
- 17,349
Mike,
I totally agree, there was some bad officiating today. Atlanta lost on that bad call, the Giants were able to hold on and win despite a phantom pass interference call where the Giants defender had position and looked to make an interception when the receiver tackled him before the ball arrived, which clearly should have been offensive pass interference. We talk about this every season. The part-time referees just don't do a very good job, and seem to blow one or two critical calls in each game. Real full time referees who are younger, in better shape, and more accountable would help a lot, as would making the rules more concrete and leaving less to interpretation. Why, for example does "incidental contact" excuse contact with a receiver more than 5 yards from the line of scrimmage? I don't care if the referee thinks the defender "accidentally" bumped or tripped a receiver, if the receiver gets knocked down, it should be a penalty, period. The same holds true for holding. They say you can call it on every play. Then call it. If an offensive lineman's hands are grabbing a defensive lineman trying to rush the passer or tackle a runner it should be called. Let it be called on 3 or 4 straight plays and offensive linemen will remember the proper way to block. But that would interfere with the leagues precious offensive statistics and screw up fantasy football. We couldn't possibly make calls fair to the defense in this day and age. Having video review be done by independent referees in a central location who are not vested in the original call (like both MLB and the NHL handle replay), and allowing them to call and/or disallow penalty calls would be the final correction. But none of this will ever happen, because it might mess with the only thing the NFL really cares about: the bottom line.
I totally agree, there was some bad officiating today. Atlanta lost on that bad call, the Giants were able to hold on and win despite a phantom pass interference call where the Giants defender had position and looked to make an interception when the receiver tackled him before the ball arrived, which clearly should have been offensive pass interference. We talk about this every season. The part-time referees just don't do a very good job, and seem to blow one or two critical calls in each game. Real full time referees who are younger, in better shape, and more accountable would help a lot, as would making the rules more concrete and leaving less to interpretation. Why, for example does "incidental contact" excuse contact with a receiver more than 5 yards from the line of scrimmage? I don't care if the referee thinks the defender "accidentally" bumped or tripped a receiver, if the receiver gets knocked down, it should be a penalty, period. The same holds true for holding. They say you can call it on every play. Then call it. If an offensive lineman's hands are grabbing a defensive lineman trying to rush the passer or tackle a runner it should be called. Let it be called on 3 or 4 straight plays and offensive linemen will remember the proper way to block. But that would interfere with the leagues precious offensive statistics and screw up fantasy football. We couldn't possibly make calls fair to the defense in this day and age. Having video review be done by independent referees in a central location who are not vested in the original call (like both MLB and the NHL handle replay), and allowing them to call and/or disallow penalty calls would be the final correction. But none of this will ever happen, because it might mess with the only thing the NFL really cares about: the bottom line.
