The National Football League is concerned with fan perception of officiating. Notice that they’re not concerned with the quality of the officiating itself, just how fans view the officials.
Gee, I can’t imagine what might have given them that idea…
The end result of this, of course, won’t be full-time officials or any changes in oversight, just a few tweaks in the rules of the game that may or may not take some pressure off the refs in big games. So really, it’s just a big fat PR stunt, which makes this a blog entry about nothing in particular. If you think that’s bad, Clark Judge has a whole column about this nothing.
Just when you thought you were safe from the words “inadvertent whistle,” people are complaining about officials again. Or, they’re still complaining. Same difference. At any rate, the perception out there is that NFL officiating reached an all-time low in 2005, and the perception, quite frankly, is wrong.
Don’t take it from me. Take it from Rich McKay, president and general manager of the Atlanta Falcons and co-chairman of the NFL competition committee that next week will notify owners at the annual league meeting that officiating is better than the public is led to believe.
“There were 39,000 plays this year,” said McKay, “and we thought officials had a very good year. There is no question there were a couple of calls in the Super Bowl and/or the playoffs that we wish we had back. But, by and large, it was a very good year.”
Try selling that to the people in Seattle…
3 responses so far ↓
1 Anonymous // Mar 26, 2006 at 4:30 am
Lets face it! I am a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan and the officiating in last year’s Superbowl was AWFUL.
It was the worst.It was obvious to me the refs wanted Pittsburgh to win the Superbowl. It looked like
the game was “fixed”. I was really
disgusted!!!
2 Ghost Dog // Mar 28, 2006 at 11:47 pm
Bucs fan? ‘Nuff said.
3 Anonymous // Apr 1, 2006 at 2:36 pm
hey – what about that HORRIBLE pass interference call against NE, gave Broncs 6 before the half…..textbook play by the db – the way it would be taught and drawn up….and the BACK judge throws a late flag…..
Part of the game = as they say – refs could call holding on EVERY play – that’s ok – but hey – can we get the big shit right, at least