An interesting NFL comment...

[ASA/NYSSOBLUE]

This appeared on a website dedicated to NFL officials,in response to a posting critizing Gerry Austin (and his crew) for their handling of Saturday's Giants/Steelers game:

Re: Dissapointed with Gerry Austin
« Reply #7 on: Dec 19th, 2004, 10:03am »
These guys don't lose their ability to make judgments...the problem is the micro managing coming from the League office...they just don't know from week to week what they are supposed to call and what they are not.

In the past you trained your officials and allowed them to make judgments based on just that judgment. Did an action on the part of a player put his opponent at a material disadvantage and you make the same call at one end of the field as at the other. You didn't have the league office having the ability to play over a play five or six times on Tuesday morning to give you a totally subjective grade and then publically humiliate you by not giving you a playoff game.

The game sucks right now...players are not allowed to play. There are too many ticky tack fouls being called because the league each weeks tells the officials what to concentrate on. Illegal contact fouls...3/4 of them are ticky tack and have no effect on the play. Just because the Pats went overboard and the officials did not crack down properly on calls that should be made. Now breathe too hard and it is an illegal contact foul.

And don't get me started on these roughing the passer calls. 3/4 of them are bogus as are most of the defensive pass interference calls. It was excellent judgment yesterday not calling pass interference on that play at the end of the Giants game, it was incidental contact. But the unnecessary roughness penalty was a joke; but these guys are afraid that on Tuesday they will get marked down by the clowns in NY who grade them.

And then I am reading on the board how this guy is good (Coleman) and this guy stinks (White)...most of the key calls are not made by the referee anyway other than roughing the passer.

We as fans are being cheated out of enjoying a game when after every play we are told a flag is down and then a 5 minute conference and then the ref piously turns on the mike and says, "illegal contact on an eligible receiver, 5 yard penalty and automatic FIRST DOWN." And we eat it up and talk about how wonderful this guy is on the mike.

Oh to go back to the simpler days. You trained your officials and trust them to make correct judgments based on their feel for the game and especially late in the game didn't want them screwing a team with a totally ticky tack foul to decide the game.



Now I will put this to you:

When was the last time you TRULY enjoyed an NFL game (especially compared to a college or hs game)?? I mean for the game itself..not for any enjoyment you got out of it for home team rooting/wagering/fantasy team purposes,but for the game itself?? I think the above post hits the nail on the head as far as how (and WHY) the NFL has deteriorated in last few years ....(although last night's MNF was actually pretty good....for once...)when you have the possibilty of a 7-9 or 8-8 team winning a division...SOMEthing's wrong...


an interesting forum btw http://refereestats.proboards22.com/...?board=general

be forewarned about the pop-ups though

[ABoselli]

I think there are separate and distinct issues at hand. Calling "ticky tack" illegal contact fouls may be true, but what does that have to do with 8-8 teams making the playoffs?

I still enjoy watching NFL football, but I think you could call out coaching and specialization as reasons for boring games just as much as penalty filled games. Just like neutral zone trapping is effective in hockey but bores the crap out of most hockey fans, so does "safe" play calling and "playing the percentages" game planning make for a boring NFL game.

It's a copycat league. If something works for one team, you can bet 20 ther teams will roll out a version of it, often with less stellar results.

Players are judged by their times and test results at the combine more than their ability to play the game. Subsequently, we get a league filled with athletic specimens with sub-standard skills. They run like deer, jump like deer and think like deer.

You can lay all of this at the feet of the NFL - not just officiating and it's foibles.

[shawn.wortman]

I think the NFL is who the original poster was criticizing, not the individual official.

He was saying, and some may disagree, that the league office is the one not letting the officials make the judgement call. They are making the call on Tuesday and down grading the game officials since they don't have the luxury of super-slo-mo during the game.

This at the cost of game officials not knowing what is a ticky-tack foul and what is not, due to league changes from week to week. So game officials call games tighter than they would if the league was not breathing down their neck.

[PSU213]

OK, several points come to mind, so here they are:

1. My enjoyment of NFL football has been hurt by the obscene number of commercials during each game, not by replays, ticky-tack fouls, etc. After a TD, you might as well go make a 5 course meal. There is the PAT, an ad, the kickoff, another ad. Its kinda ridiculous. I certainly enjoy college football more than NFL ball, but that is partly due to television coverage, not officials (and I pray there are never as many ad's in college TV games than in the NFL).

2. Some of the micromanagement of officals stems from the playoff game between the Giants and SF, where the officals "blew" a call on the last play of the game, and the Giants made a big stink, and lawsuits were threatened, etc.

3. I don't understand what Gerry Austin has to do with this. I don't know if the original poster agrees with this or not, but all the illegal contact fouls are made by the offials who are downfield, not the referee. And I disagree with all the roughing the passer calls (it seems like you can't even knock a QB down without a rouging call), but the R's are just calling what the league tells them to call. Also, the league is protecting the QB's, and if they don't the same people who know complain about the roughing calls will complain that all the best QB's are being injured.

4. As already mentioned, all the teams in the NFC with losing or .500 records who can still make the playoff are not the fault of the officials.

5. And who really talks about how wonderful a guy is on the mike????

[cowbyfan1]

The NFL is getting harder and harder to watch because of all the delays with it. Whether it is for replay, too many flags, commercials, etc. I also agree that the NFL went way overboard on the illegal contact. I also feel they are way overboard on roughing the passer and for "hitting a defensless receiver" Especially the latter and the illegal contact has made it almost pointless to have defensive backs, especially at the safety position. There are 3 things that will happen if the NFL continues the way it is reguarding pass coverage. 1. Emmitt's rushing record will never be broken because a running back will never get enough carries to come close to breaking the record. 2. Jerry Rice's receiving records will be blown away because a 4 to 1 or 5 to 1 pass to run ratio will be considered conservative. and 3. Any game with inaccurate QB(s) will take 4+ hours to complete.

I have watched the least amount of NFL games and more Collage games this year than ever before in my life with the exception fo 1985 when I saw Army play (I believe) Western Michigan in person and did not get to see any NFL games due to the military. This is also the first time in years I have not gone to see an NFL game in person.

[GBFBUmp]

Originally posted by cowbyfan1
The NFL is getting harder and harder to watch because of all the delays with it. Whether it is for replay, too many flags, commercials, etc. I also agree that the NFL went way overboard on the illegal contact. I also feel they are way overboard on roughing the passer and for "hitting a defensless receiver" Especially the latter and the illegal contact has made it almost pointless to have defensive backs, especially at the safety position. There are 3 things that will happen if the NFL continues the way it is reguarding pass coverage. 1. Emmitt's rushing record will never be broken because a running back will never get enough carries to come close to breaking the record. 2. Jerry Rice's receiving records will be blown away because a 4 to 1 or 5 to 1 pass to run ratio will be considered conservative. and 3. Any game with inaccurate QB(s) will take 4+ hours to complete.

I have watched the least amount of NFL games and more Collage games this year than ever before in my life with the exception fo 1985 when I saw Army play (I believe) Western Michigan in person and did not get to see any NFL games due to the military. This is also the first time in years I have not gone to see an NFL game in person.

I absolutley agree. In addition to it being tedious to sit through the advertisement mess at home, it really screws up the tempo of a game at the field, for players and fans. At least at home I can get a few things done around the house while the ads are on . In our new beautiful Lambeau field we are inundated with ads on the Jumbotrons during all the TV timeouts. THe players are standing around, I believe losing the flow of the game. The fans start watching everything but the game. One of my friends is convinced the fans are quieter than normal, I agree, but I think its not so much due to poor fans, but so much other stuff going on at the games and the TV timeouts.

I am convinced that this is what is messing up most games. Let the players play and let the officials call what they see!

[mcrowder]

I think there's an easy fix to the bumping the receiver problem. I agree that the rules as implemented this year went too far. CB is a worthless position to have a stud at now. WR's now just have to get past an initial bump and then become home free.

I believe a simple change of allowing chucking by the defender within 10 yards will keep good CB's in the game and require receivers to work to get to the no-chuck zone, while still keeping the integrity of what the league is trying to accomplish intact.

Your thoughts?

Originally posted by mcrowder
I think there's an easy fix to the bumping the receiver problem. I agree that the rules as implemented this year went too far. CB is a worthless position to have a stud at now. WR's now just have to get past an initial bump and then become home free.

I believe a simple change of allowing chucking by the defender within 10 yards will keep good CB's in the game and require receivers to work to get to the no-chuck zone, while still keeping the integrity of what the league is trying to accomplish intact.

Your thoughts?

I like that. I think that would be a nice change. I think the NFL wants to keep scoring up. I like a defensive game too...alot of scoring can be boring too.

[Edited by tpaul on Dec 26th, 2004 at 05:03 PM]

[PS2Man]

I love the NFL. I have no problem with the game and the way it is called. The officials do not make the rules they just enforce them. Coaches and ADs are on the competition committee and they set what rules are important. I enjoy the games and football is my favorite sport. I love college football a little more, but I have no problem with the NFL.