NFL Refs Association source on three blown calls

Something useful from the MCI for once:

NFL game official says Monday night referees made major mistakes - The Boston Globe

I had been wondering about the Chandler thing. The source also boosts the theory that the ref who blew the Watkins call was new and applied the college rule:

The source said Walker mistakenly applied the college rule instead of the NFL rule. Just because Watkins went backward does not mean he gave himself up as a runner; running sideways or backward is still considered trying to “advance” the football. For the runner to surrender himself, he has to truly give up on the play — such as when a quarterback slides before taking a hit.

“In the NFL, the way it’s always been officiated is if a guy gets out of bounds, you give it to him and stop the clock,” the source said. “But he called it like the college rule. I’m not sure he knew the NFL rule.”

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“But he called it like the college rule. I’m not sure he knew the NFL rule.”

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He was presumably hired by and supervised by NFL VP of Officiating Dean Blandino, the guy who was never any kind of official [but is a Jets alum.] Why is Blandino getting a pass for the near universal incompetence of his crew?

They really screwed up the inadvertent whistle play too. The refs should have called the ball dead from the previous line of scrimmage, since Amendola had not caught it yet when the whistle blew. Then tack on Rex's foul from there.

Thus the Patriots benefited from at least 2 blown calls. To which the chimpscreamers will say:

The NFL is a $15B industry and to have part-timers who are clearly not 100% focused on their jobs that are chartered with ensuring the integrity of the game is madness.

If Blandino really wants to make an impact he needs to have full-time refs that know the freaking rules and have every play under review. Scores, penalties, plays- everything. That game is too fast to be perfect.

If he really wanted to improve the game, his team would sit down with Bill and other well-respected coaches and take their input.

Instead lets have a-holes like Jeff Fisher and cheaters like McKay run the competition committee.

robertweathers said:

The NFL is a $15B industry and to have part-timers who are clearly not 100% focused on their jobs that are chartered with ensuring the integrity of the game is madness.

If Blandino really wants to make an impact he needs to have full-time refs that know the freaking rules and have every play under review. Scores, penalties, plays- everything. That game is too fast to be perfect.

If he really wanted to improve the game, his team would sit down with Bill and other well-respected coaches and take their input.

Instead lets have a-holes like Jeff Fisher and cheaters like McKay run the competition committee.

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Don't believe the hype.

The NBA has the worst officials in the U.S. 'big 4' leagues. Those officials are full time.

oldrover said:

They really screwed up the inadvertent whistle play too. The refs should have called the ball dead from the previous line of scrimmage, since Amendola had not caught it yet when the whistle blew. Then tack on Rex's foul from there.

Thus the Patriots benefited from at least 2 blown calls. To which the chimpscreamers will say:

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To be fair, I'm 99% sure they gave us the catch as small compensation for the accidentally-stolen 50 yards. Not sure I believe in breaking one rule to make up for another one but it's a game...

Deus Irae said:

Don't believe the hype.

The NBA has the worst officials in the U.S. 'big 4' leagues. Those officials are full time.

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From a procedural and complexity standpoint, officiating an NBA isn't as close to being as complicated as an NFL one.

robertweathers said:

From a procedural and complexity standpoint, the NBA isn't as close to being as complicated as the NFL.

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You're out of your mind.

oldrover said:

They really screwed up the inadvertent whistle play too. The refs should have called the ball dead from the previous line of scrimmage, since Amendola had not caught it yet when the whistle blew. Then tack on Rex's foul from there.

Thus the Patriots benefited from at least 2 blown calls. To which the chimpscreamers will say:

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It didn't benefit them because instead of a possible 7 pts they got 0 pts. The whole thing didn't play out well. If anything, say they just tack on 15 for the coach infraction, they might be pissed off enough because the refs stole a td that they might have went down and scored a td. We got nothing out of it.

oldrover said:

They really screwed up the inadvertent whistle play too. The refs should have called the ball dead from the previous line of scrimmage, since Amendola had not caught it yet when the whistle blew. Then tack on Rex's foul from there.

Thus the Patriots benefited from at least 2 blown calls. To which the chimpscreamers will say:

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Is the inadvertent whistle play reviewable? Because if not, you're asking refs to know/remember when the whistle was blown. It happens in a split second. None of the refs are expecting something weird lke that to happen. So you're assuming they knew and they changed their ruling to favor the Patriots. Since it was unexpected and since it happened in a split second, Im going to assume they had no clue where the ball was when the whistle went off

Clearly the ref who blew it had no clue because he lost track of the ball, so he couldn't have known.

But if that play is reviewable, then you are right.

And of course there were huge bogus holding calls against the Patriots that impacted them while the Bills were hogtying Patriots defenders with no calls.

An inadvertent whistle isn't reviewable. It will be next year. Hopefully, they'll add a healthy number of easily correctable plays to the list of reviewable plays. However, I won't hold my breath on everything becoming reviewable.

Deus Irae said:

You're out of your mind.

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NBA gameday ops and officiating is more complex than NFL gameday ops and officiating?

Is that what you are saying?

robertweathers said:

The NFL is a $15B industry and to have part-timers who are clearly not 100% focused on their jobs that are chartered with ensuring the integrity of the game is madness.

If Blandino really wants to make an impact he needs to have full-time refs that know the freaking rules and have every play under review. Scores, penalties, plays- everything. That game is too fast to be perfect.

If he really wanted to improve the game, his team would sit down with Bill and other well-respected coaches and take their input.

Instead lets have a-holes like Jeff Fisher and cheaters like McKay run the competition committee.

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I think it would make sense if they made the referees, and perhaps the top member of each crew, full-time employees. Then, they could work a larger number of practices, better identify issues that can arise in the course of games without having to blow them to make corrections, help support decisions made by Blandino and the competition committee in terms of evaluating potential rule changes, and that's just during the off-season. During the season, they could review tape of the crew's prior games and of upcoming teams, identify plays that might require particular attention, players that have favorite illegals techniques that they shield from obvious view of the officials, and just generally rise to the something resembling the professional standards of the more highly compensated players and coaches whom they officiate.

robertweathers said:

NBA gameday ops and officiating is more complex than NFL gameday ops and officiating?

Is that what you are saying?

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I'm saying that you're out of your mind to argue that full time officials are the answer for the fast paced game of football when full time officials are demonstrably not the answer for the fast paced game of basketball, and that trying to use complexity as the reason undercuts your own argument, given how bad the NBA officials are.

pencilneckgeek said:

I think it would make sense if they made the referees, and perhaps the top member of each crew, full-time employees. Then, they could work a larger number of practices, better identify issues that can arise in the course of games without having to blow them to make corrections, help support decisions made by Blandino and the competition committee in terms of evaluating potential rule changes, and that's just during the off-season. During the season, they could review tape of the crew's prior games and of upcoming teams, identify plays that might require particular attention, players that have favorite illegals techniques that they shield from obvious view of the officials, and just generally rise to the something resembling the professional standards of the more highly compensated players and coaches whom they officiate.

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Thats a good proposal. In my experience while you can scale it, you can't make your core product or services better with part-time employees. Thatis what the NFL has been doing- and its worked for many years.

The game has gotten more complex and with more rules. Its gotten faster. Having part-timers become full-timers and becoming completely immersed in officiating a game at the NFL level and having every play review-able for quality is a great step in the right direction.

Deus Irae said:

I'm saying that you're out of your mind to argue that full time officials are the answer for the fast paced game of football when full time officials are demonstrably not the answer for the fast paced game of basketball, and that trying to use complexity as the reason undercuts your own argument, given how bad the NBA officials are.

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You are assuming that Don Vaden and Joe Borgia are actually doing their jobs and holding refs accountable to be consistent in making/not making calls and giving them the tools to be successful.

It all starts from the top.

Deus Irae said:

Don't believe the hype.
The NBA has the worst officials in the U.S. 'big 4' leagues. Those officials are full time.

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I agree. It's amazing how many extra steps those players take with no whistle. Dribbling has become optional.

Deus Irae said:

I'm saying that you're out of your mind to argue that full time officials are the answer for the fast paced game of football when full time officials are demonstrably not the answer for the fast paced game of basketball, and that trying to use complexity as the reason undercuts your own argument, given how bad the NBA officials are.

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I agree with you on the above, but that's not how your "You're out of your mind" post came across.

Current NFL Refs don't want Full time either / What the NFL has to do now is start hiring new officials to be full time which is their right under the CBA. But while also fulfilling the CBA which expires after the 2019 season. Having 100% full time refs is at least 5 years away.

robertweathers said:

You are assuming that Don Vaden and Joe Borgia are actually doing their jobs and holding refs accountable to be consistent in making/not making calls and giving them the tools to be successful.

It all starts from the top.

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No, I'm assuming nothing. I'm pointing out that the notion that making the officials full time will solve the problems is absurd. Some of the NFL officials are already full time, yet clearly people here feel that the officiating isn't any better as a result.

Here's Hochuli describing a typical week:

ESPN.com: NFL - Refereeing can often be full-time job