Was 3Man Officiating Crews Designed To Keep Older Out Of Shape Officials Around?

[rockyroad]

3-person mechanics do not protect officials who are not very good to start with! Does it lengthen the careers of some officials - of course. Physically, 3-person mechanics are less demanding on the whole (although I have worked some 3-person games where I am still exhausted afterwards)...mentally, it can be more of a drain than two person. Some of those "older" officials we see doing big-time college games are there because of their experience and judgement...would they be there if it was still two-person? Don't know...but three-person was installed because the game is so much faster and has so much more going on than it did 20 years ago, not to protect officials...