Do you think NFL officiating is fair and honest.

[reflexblue]

After watching a number of games over the years (particularly Peyton Mannings) Ive sometimes thought that the reffs were trying to get a particular out come. Do you think the officiating in the NFL is completely on the up and up. Cause sometimes i wonder.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Re: Do you think NFL officiating is honest.

I think that some officials can make very bad decisions. Their judgement on stuff they glimpse obliquely in only a few hundred milliseconds can be profoundly influenced by their pre-existing personal team prejudices.

And a very few are just bad people who unabashedly let their biases affect their calls.

 

[dales804]

Re: Do you think NFL officiating is honest.

I vote "yes." It sucks sometimes but I don't believe the officials are purposely making calls to give one team an advantage.

Now the NBA is a different story...

 

[Sciz]

Re: Do you think NFL officiating is honest.

I think the issue here is ability, not intention.

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

Re: Do you think NFL officiating is honest.

I put in a vote for more nuanced than either option. If the question is whether the NFL wants outcomes and dictates things to officials about how to call the game to make their wishes come true, absolutely unequivocally not.

But officials get swayed by things like home field, situation, coaches working them, and even things that have happened earlier in the game, all of which can contribute to poor calls.

Assuming, however, the question is whether officials care who wins? They do not. I know it's not a popular view on NFL message boards, but am confident of the answer.

 

[brdmaverick]

Re: Do you think NFL officiating is honest.

I vote "yes." It sucks sometimes but I don't believe the officials are purposely making calls to give one team an advantage.

Now the NBA is a different story...

I agree completely. I think they are prone to bad calls, but not intentionally bad calls.

After all, if they were making intentional calls wouldn't they have made calls to get Peyton to the AFC Championship Game?

In fact, some of the bad calls actually went in the Ravens favor.....

1.) I think the Peyton sack/fumble was a clear case of the tuck rule.

2.) I think in OT Anquan Boldin's third down reception on the opening drive should have been overturned (but was not).

If the officials were REALLy trying to get Peyton to the Championship game they would have thrown a flag for PI on teh pick six he threw. (that would have been a reach, but we've seen that before)

 

[Welkerstache]

Re: Do you think NFL officiating is honest.

Polls like this one speak to the need to remove subjectivity/judgement calls from officiating.

When you have a complex rulebook, fast in-game action calling for quick decisions, and rules with a substantial subjective component, you will inevitably get accusations of bias and corruption.

 

[Spergon Wynn]

Re: Do you think NFL officiating is honest.

I'm not sure that it's dishonest but it does suffer from the "human effect" in that there are certain biases and personal feelings in some game officials, whether they realize it or not. It's the same in all sports on all levels.

In terms of if there are preferred outcomes, yes I believe the league office likes to see certain teams win (and I do think that they like seeing NE win, as well as other teams who have large fan bases and haters) but I don't think they alter results or make calls with that intention.

So if the question is whether or not the games are "fixed", no I don't believe they are but I do believe some refs have personal feelings towards some players and/or teams, whether positive or negative.

 

[PatsDeb]

Re: Do you think NFL officiating is honest.

I don't know how to answer this. I think it's "honest" but flawed. I don't think the officials set out to hand the game to one team over the other, but it seems like "benefit of the doubt because of who you are" or "call it this way because of how the game is going" seems to creep into the calls, even if it's subconscious. I think there is a tendency in everyone connected to the game, be it fans, officials, tv people, etc., to want the game going on to be competitive, and somehow that creeps into the calls. I don't think it's terribly intentional, however. Does this make any sense? Probably not, but it's how I feel.

 

[Patsrock]

Re: Do you think NFL officiating is honest.

I think it is 100% honest. Just think at times it is bad.

 

[DefenseRules]

Re: Do you think NFL officiating is honest.

I think that it's 100% honest, but I think that the officials just
SUCK at times.

 

[RodThePat]

Re: Do you think NFL officiating is honest.

I don't think there are fixes in the NFL, nor do I believe officiating crews come into a game "wanting" a certain team to win. I absolutely do believe sometimes officials let themselves get carried away by the crowd/situation, though.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Re: Do you think NFL officiating is honest.

For the most part yes, but I believe there are exceptions:
Steelers-Seahawks super bowl
2006 AFCC

It would be hard to convince me those games were called without any sort of bias.

 

[upstater1]

Re: Do you think NFL officiating is honest.

I used to think it was honest until Ray Anderson was seen hi-fiving the Jets and telling them "I told you so!" after one really bad afternoon for the Patriots.

There is no directive from the league office telling the refs what to do because people would go to jail if that were true. On the other hand, style of reffing, assignments, subtle nudges, etc., can impact games, and this particular presidential staff is not impartial.

 

[reflexblue]

Re: Do you think NFL officiating is honest.

I can't see the league office telling the game officials "we'd like team A to win. But i do think that some reffs are biased or allow themselves to be influenced by the crowd etc.

 

[Danger Zone]

I'm pretty damn sure that the no-call on Seymour being blatantly held from behind as he had hands on Eli in the Superbowl was simply wish-fulfillment on part of the refs.

 

[PATSNUTme]

I have been told that the ref's are human. (that needs to be verifed)

If they are human they make mistakes and come with some bias. But I don't think that they would deliberately call a game so one team would win ( this isn't the NBA) Having said that, the ref's were awful yesterday.

 

[olschool]

They're only fair and honest when they do something I like. Otherwise they all suck.

 

[InRodWeRust]

Re: Do you think NFL officiating is honest.

I don't know how to answer this. I think it's "honest" but flawed. I don't think the officials set out to hand the game to one team over the other, but it seems like "benefit of the doubt because of who you are" or "call it this way because of how the game is going" seems to creep into the calls, even if it's subconscious. I think there is a tendency in everyone connected to the game, be it fans, officials, tv people, etc., to want the game going on to be competitive, and somehow that creeps into the calls. I don't think it's terribly intentional, however. Does this make any sense? Probably not, but it's how I feel.

It makes sense to me and I agree with what you're saying.

 

[Welkerstache]

Re: Do you think NFL officiating is honest.

Also, the NFL's evaluation process for officials is completely opaque, from a fan's perspective.

If the NFL released their criteria, methodology, and scores for the officials and crews, it would increase fan confidence in the integrity of NFL officiating.