Quote:
Originally posted by hooper
Are you denying that officiating has been a problem in the NFL? If so, then I'm not sure what you can add to this discussion.
The average age of an NFL official is nearly 52. The oldest official is 65. Anyone see a problem? I'm not suggesting that mere high school graduates be put on the field in the NFL, but if graduates believe that officiating is a legitimate full-time profession where they can make some money, you can bet that they'll start officiating at pee wee games, and junior high games, and high school games, which could eventually lead to a larger pool of better qualified, young NFL officials (who might be able to keep up with the game a little better.)
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Any official who thinks there is no room for improvement is fooling themselves. Since you haven't been around long on this forum, I will let you in on a secret that we have many times discussed the fact that we need younger officials. People that initially get into officiating for the money are not typically people that make the best officials, yes there are exceptions. We have all talked about the guy that is just here for the money. Where I take exception is in the fact that the officiating is horrible. Yes there is always room to improve. There is no shortage of qualified young officials for the NFL, there is a shortage of qualified young officials for High School games. The NFL is constantly training, evaluating and bringing up qualified officials. As for keeping up with the play, I think the Super Bowl group did a great job, on a 75 yd run by one of the fastest guys in the league an official was on the 2 yd line when Parker crossed the goal line...pretty damned good if you ask me...I think the real problem lies in the media. The fact that commentators and sportscasters can sit down and disect a play from a multitude of angles at superslow motion is going to lead to some discussion. The fact that a majority of the time the commentators and or sportscasters either don't know the rules or the philosophy of how those rules are applied at different levels and in different conferences leads those discussions into an area that is certainly not one of their expertise. As long as humans officiate the games there will be judgement calls, as long as humans play the games there will be a need for officials. No one in the world feels worse if a call is missed than the guy who missed it. Not many officials miss the same call 2 times, so in the overall scheme of things I am certainly satisfied with the officiating of the Super Bowl, I only hope that someday I could work that "part time" job.....