on the fans being right 80% of the time. Our vision is skewed by subjectivity the majority of the time. But, I do believe there are a few of us out here who somewhat understand the difficulties of being an official while having a reasonably objective view of the rules of the game and how they are applied.
BobM:
I also see your point on the IR penalty in trying to balance the crime and punishment. (Basically, I'm just mad because Arkansas had a play that had TD written all over it on a deep pass such as I described in my first post, reduced to a 15 yard gain to the 35 or so.) The hogs failed to score on the possession.
Regardless, it's a tough call. Maybe a rule change that makes the punishment for PI in the EZ much more strict like the Intentional Grounding in the EZ rule that results in a safety? ( I believe that's correct)
I do respectully disagree with you on the fans having no right to know how the officials get graded. I'm not saying a public reprimand, but something like a scoresheet for the refs that get's added to the boxscore once it is completed by the evaluator. That could possibly educate the fans as to what the officials got right and what they got wrong. It would also take away from many fans (incorrect) opinions and attitudes that officials can call a game to their liking and have no accountability for their performance.
You're right. You rarely see a coach talk publicly about a player screwing up. However, I can look at the box and get a general idea of how the players performed.
The officials have a huge impact on the game through calls that are black and white and other calls that judgements. They are as much a part of the game as the players because they are there to keep rules from being broken. That's a massive responsibility, especially with 22 men running around the field at any given time. Violations will be missed and some will be called that didn't happen. It's impossible for it to be perfect and I, as a fan, realize that. Officials get villified constantly and it's usually because the fans don't understand the rules. But sometimes it's not. Sometimes the official simply blows it at a critical time and that's when fans begin to feel like an unfair advantage was given to the other team.
You know, honestly, as I write this and go back and read some of it I have come to the conclusion that I have no idea what the answer is. Maybe there's not one. I could go on and on, (and I have) about this and never get it solved.
Oh well.
Bottom line. Officials have a tough job and most of them try their best to get it right all the time. Mistakes are going to happen and fans and coaches will just have to live with them.
Thanks for the discussion,
God Bless
Cary