Larger Crews
 

Awhile back, I came up with a quick and dirty set of mechanics for 4-person crews, primarily for the NBA, as I often see the officials get beat down the court.

If the NFL were to expand beyond 7 people on a crew, what would the next step be? A deep Referee, way back in the offensive backfield? Two deep wings in the offensive backfield? What would the new positions be called?

Superfluous?

Supernumerary?

With a 7 man crew you have an official for each eligible receiver, plus the R on the QB and the U watching the line play.

We could have a second Referee and call him the "Executive Vice President to the White Hat" or maybe "Junior".

:D

I favor a 22-man crew, so we won't miss anything.

You know...if you ask a certain Rugby troll here, 22 is how many officials we all secretly want. Just ask him, the game of football has been ruined and we'll be up to that many soon enough.

Canadian Ruling
 

CANADIAN RULING:

24 officials. :D :eek:

If you want larger crews, then you should name the positions:

Umpire #1, Umpire #2, Umpire #3...

;)

It'd be the smartest crew on the field though. :D

Because they're all Umpires? :)

The first new position to be added would be official working as a "second referee". The NFL tried out moving the umpire to this position but it did not work out for the best. His position will be called the "wing judge" and will wear a "W" or "WJ" on his shirt.

Other positions to be added will be the "north goal line judge" (NG) and the "south goal line judge" (SG). These officials will stand in the middle of the field always staring on the goal line. No longer will anyone have to worry about getting beat to the goal line as an official will already be standing there. When the ball is being snapped near the A's goal line the nearest goal line judge will then move to the back of the endzone to assist the referee and wing judge in judging if anyone stepped out of bounds in the end zone.

If the ball is snapped near B's goal line the nearest goal line judge will move to the end line and help out the BJ.

In all seriousness, the one place I could see an 8 man crew is on kicks, but in virtually all cases it would be places not run very often. Free kicks could obviously use an official behind the kicker on onside situations. On field goals, the side judge could go back to the goal line with the new guy and cover that in case of a fake.

With the wide open passing games, a 9 man crew, with the current FJ and SJ brought closer to the line to take the pressure off the wings, and the two new guys back deeper, might be workable. With 5 guys in the secondary, the wings can stay home and officiate the LOS, leaving the umpire and referee to work the interior linemen actions and QB (R). With twins on each side, the mid-judges could take the slot receivers, the back judge the tight end, and the deep flanks the outside receivers with the wings taking anyone left in the backfield on his side. The other helps the U with holding and helps the R with QB fouls and late hits.

We have hell getting 5 guys dressed in places they put us. I'd hate to have to go in shifts for 9 guys!

I could see adding an official that gets a TV type view. Sometimes it seems that angle from above could be useful. Not blocked out very often. They might be in the booth with the replay official.

Can't be the Booth Judge because BJ is already taken. Maybe, TV Judge? Or Above Judge - AJ? :D

freeloaders :D

AKA, "Snickers", "Big Mac" and "Crispy Creme"


One of the local schools likes to have lots of coaches. I have counted 14 for one game, 6 on the sideline and 8 in the booth. No wonder they whine on every play because with 28 eyes looking at the play they will see what we don't. Of course, they may be a little bit partisan in their view and rules knowledge is not their strength.

Exactly! :D

I like having 6 wing officials. Having 2 more wing officials would leave the LJ and HL free would eliminate the need for a wing judge. One official will be called the deep judge and the other the rear judge.

I'm not exactly sure how to work out who gets the progress spot. The DJ and RJ will take it at the goal line, but at what point to the HL and LJ let the SJ and FJ take over?

At least one wing official should be in charge of sideline control. Billy club, mace and tasers would be standard equipment. No need to flag it when you have other options. I am checking Honig's website now.

"Don't tase me Ref!"

I just checked, Honigs is offering the taser as part of their starter package :D

Running plays and passes behind the line that are not apparent first downs, you'd give to the current wings. Deep flanks are deeper and would have no spots (except goal line and possibly change of possession spots -- not terribly different from current mechanics) and "mid" wings have everything else. Now, we have 3 people to control the sidelines, plus there's better behind the line spots -- especially on pass plays (sacks, etc.).

Not happening, but fun to talk about. Interestingly enough, the more you talk about alternative mechanics, the better you learn the current mechanics since you have to know and understand what we (should) do now to make it better. So there's nothing wrong with adding a few more officials out there. By all means: come to my games! I'll work you in!

I agree that if more officials were to be added to the NFL and NCAA levels it would be more wing officials. Then the wings at the LOS could stay there and provide better coverage for blocking and holding. Then 5 officials could be watching pass patterns without having to run so far so fast. There may be a lack of coverage areas for all those officials with A moving in to score. The other option is to have a second BJ like 6-man to then have 8-man.

Baseball is the only professional sport I know of to add officials for the play-off games. I know some states will add officials for football in high school I still am not convinced that is a good idea. Professional football, basketball, and hockey work just fine with the standard number of officials. Baseball adds those foul line umpires but I don't think they really get much use out of them. Maybe a call every few years but they have the money to pay them so whatever. Soccer is the sport where I think they could use more officials. That is a huge field with 22 players and only three officials and two of them can't get on the field so there are only two really working the game at any time. They could do more with more eyes.

Gets my vote for post of the year.

What's sometimes called semi-professional (but these days really is amateur, so I prefer the term "minor league") football also frequently adds officials for playoffs.

Rugby's the game that obviously needs more officials. What they've done in recent years is upgrade some of the touch judges, adjusting their jurisdiction depending on whether they're experienced as refs and whether the level of competition calls for it (approximately equivalent to adding officials in playoff games). In just ordinary games the touch judges are supplied by each team, but these upgraded touch judges are neutral ones supplied like refs. If they had enough personnel they could add a goal judge behind each post instead of making the touch judges shuttle, but that's a low priority. They really need another in-field official to help with so many situations.

Robert

Right now with 6 or 7 officials we have HL and LJ who will stay slightly behind the ball as it moves down the field. Generally they are behind the ball when it becomes dead.

If the ball is coming towards their sideline they move towards A's goal line so they can stay out of the way of the players.

The SJ and FJ only get the progress at the goal line. They can back up deep off of the sideline if they are threatned by players running into them.

If the SJ and FJ were in a 8 or 9 man game, they would be the middle wing officials. DJ and RJ have the goal line and can back up if they need to. HL and LJ move towards A's goal line to avoid players. Where do SJ and FJ go? At some point they must get behind the ball as it is not safe to be in front of it. I don't see a good way of doing that.

La. goes from 5 to 6 in the playoffs (mandatory from the third round on - optional in the first two) and all I know is that as a B, the addition of the F makes my job much easier

My concern there is that the new official hasn't been game tested all season from the position he is seeing now. Other officials around him also now have different responsibilities as well. I feel that responsibilities should be second nature at that point so that mistakes are limited. Perhaps adding the extra guy isn't that big of a deal but if it puts any kind of doubt in your mind as to coverages or positioning then it hasn't helped right then.