Goodell: NFL to consider full-time officials

[HLin NC]

I don't see how 10 officials switched to "full time" status makes anything better or different. The goal of consistency, while laudable, will never reach 100%.

Will Ed Hochuli, a top shelf atty, give up his law firm? Doubtful. Will Mike Carey give up his successful business? I wouldn't think so.

These guys already study film, read rule books, confer, and work camps and scrimmages. What other full time duties can they perform?

[bisonlj]

As I read it they would be using existing officials to do more advanced film review that could be used by the "part-time" officials throughout the season to improve consistency. They could do the same thing by hiring retired officials to do the same thing but it may be less expensive to give a little more money to existing officials rather than paying a full salary to others. I wonder if there will be any conflict between those 10 officials and the ones who receive their comments. Overall I think this sounds like something that would have a positive impact on officiating.

[JasonTX]

I think this is just a marketing ploy by the NFL to make the fans feel better by having "full time" officials. These guys already put in long hours doing film study and camps. There isn't much more they can do that they aren't already doing.

[Tom.OH]

As tjones stated the full time officials would be R's so that takes care of 10 crews, what about the other 6 crews ?

[jTheUmp]

Originally Posted by Tom.OH

As tjones stated the full time officials would be R's so that takes care of 10 crews, what about the other 6 crews ?

Actually, there are 17 crews. At least one crew always has the week off.

[HLin NC]

So how does one guy for every one and half crews lead to an increase in "consistency"? I like Goodell but someone sold him a lemon on this one.

[Texas Aggie]

This might be a good idea IF...it didn't end up making most current officials leave. Like mentioned above, there are many top officials who wouldn't join full time since FT would mean more time than what's now spent. So, they'd either have to stagger in FT officials or you'd have to deal with losing a lot of experience.

Contrary to what's expressed here, I think going full time would be better than what's done now. On a typical game weekend, the crews meet mid-day Friday and leave mid-day Monday while either working the game or in film study or review most working hours. A full 2-3 week camp during the summer, 3 or 4 1 week mini-camps during the spring, team scrimmages and clinics. They'd easily put in 40-45 full time weeks but still would be home more than the average national sales rep.