I don't necessarily have a problem with the league centralizing the process or otherwise taking it out of the hands of the on field ref. It's worked fairly well in the NHL. HOWEVER making Blandino the final arbitor is a huge mistake. Making a guy who has never actually reffed a game the head of officials is suspect to begin with. Making him the final arbitor of every challenge, is another example of Goodell's hubris at its worst.
Given that there are three stand alone game each week (Sunday night, Monday night, and Thursday) plus a bye week after game 2; there are 12 games going on most Sundays. I would assume that would mean 6 early games and 6 late games each week. If we assume there are just 2 challenges every game; that would mean Blandino would be making the call on at least 12 plays during each time frame. As mentioned so many time before in the this thread "What could possible go wrong with that??.
BTW- while its unlikely that there will be 2 or more challenges at the same time, there will have to be a plan for when it happens. What is that plan and who will make that discision.
Questions: On average, how many challenges actually occur in each game? There can be as many as 6, but my guess would be somewhere between 2-3/game. So what are the actual stats?
How does this policy affect the so called booth reviews that happen in the last 2 minutes of each half? Are thoe calls being centralized too?
