Replacement officials on the way

[US Egg]

17 hours ago, Steptide said:

At some point, officiating is gonna be 90% Ai and 10% human officials. Officials will be on the field to more, or less, confirm the calls. I think we're a ways away from that though 

Problem there is that everything gets called. Perfect referring sounds great, but I don’t know….

[BillyJoeBills]

NFL’s richest sport and they use part-timer refs while NBA and MLB hire full timers.  Freaking refs screwed us in Denver “interception”; rushed their ruling bc they wanted to the game along; probably didn’t want to miss their flight so they can return to their real full time job

[DrBob806]

22 hours ago, Bill from NYC said:

There is another factor imo. The NFL owners are a group of billionaire men and women who spent their lives accumulating wealth. This by itself doesn't bother me. That said, the less money refs earn, the better the chances for them to be compromised, or at least so it would seem.

 

In the Chiefs/Jets game in 2023, the cameras showed Taylor Swift 17 times. In Super Bowl LVIII, she was on camera 12 times. This makes money for the league through the advertisers. Huge money, or so I think. Young women are a group that the NFL can make new money on by attracting them. 

 

I know that I can be a bit cynical, but it is very hard for me to believe that the presence of Taylor Swift did not have at least some impact on referee's calls.

 

Jmo.

You may be correct on that, I'm not totally sure.

 

My opinion is the league has favored certain teams (Denver, Pittsburgh, Green Bay, & the NY Giants) for many many years, going back into the 70s. The KC thing is relatively new, and may certainly coincide with Taylor Swift. 

 

The flip side is the NFL has it out for the Raiders & Browns, the two organizations who successfully won lawsuits vs the NFL. 

[The Frankish Reich]

11 hours ago, US Egg said:

Problem there is that everything gets called. Perfect referring sounds great, but I don’t know….

It does until players adjust and the rules adjust.

It's the lack of consistency that drives people nuts.

Baseball finally - finally! - went to ball/strike video reviews. Pretty soon no more of that "hey, that's MY strike zone" stupidity from entitled umps. The strike zone will adjust to something more like what's in the rulebook, and if that drives run scoring too high or too low the rules will change to restore balance. At least we won't have called third strikes on pitches 1 foot off the plate.

[machine gun kelly]

This is a big mistake.  It will end up in a disaster and the owners will cave to a degree.  It happened several years ago, the refs made horrible mistakes and the owners ponied up more $.

[Billy Claude]

4 hours ago, The Frankish Reich said:

It does until players adjust and the rules adjust.

It's the lack of consistency that drives people nuts.

Baseball finally - finally! - went to ball/strike video reviews. Pretty soon no more of that "hey, that's MY strike zone" stupidity from entitled umps. The strike zone will adjust to something more like what's in the rulebook, and if that drives run scoring too high or too low the rules will change to restore balance. At least we won't have called third strikes on pitches 1 foot off the plate.

 

Obvious thing is to start with AI doing the video reviews.  A specialized model should be able to come up with a decision and explain why in 10 seconds.  Give a human 20 seconds to make sure it is not obviously wrong and you are done before the broadcast finishes running their slow motion replays.

 

[B-Man]

 

 

[US Egg]

11 hours ago, The Frankish Reich said:

It does until players adjust and the rules adjust.

It's the lack of consistency that drives people nuts.

Baseball finally - finally! - went to ball/strike video reviews. Pretty soon no more of that "hey, that's MY strike zone" stupidity from entitled umps. The strike zone will adjust to something more like what's in the rulebook, and if that drives run scoring too high or too low the rules will change to restore balance. At least we won't have called third strikes on pitches 1 foot off the plate.

The ABS is a plus and a teachable tool and could help in weeding out some bad umps. Just don't see how robotics can address holding and interference calls which are the most questionable and inconsistent. It ain't happening anytime soon, if ever. 

[BananaB]

Any changes in officials would not bother me at all. I don’t think there is a sport where games are being effected by the officials like the NFL

Edited Sunday at 09:56 PM by BananaB

[Buffalo716]

5 minutes ago, BananaB said:

Any changes in officials would not bother me at all. I don’t think there is a sport where games are being effected by the officials like the NFL

NBA?

 

I mean there's a referee who went to prison for fixing games lol

[Bill from NYC]

11 minutes ago, Buffalo716 said:

NBA?

 

I mean there's a referee who went to prison for fixing games lol

In your opinion, do any NFL refs make dishonest calls?

[Buffalo716]

1 minute ago, Bill from NYC said:

In your opinion, do any NFL refs make dishonest calls?

I mean dishonest or missed calls? 

 

I mean even officials can influence other officials.. in the playoff game on the last pass interference there was an official right there and he didn't throw the flag...

 

It came from a dude from across the field 

 

So at the end of the day when they come together the dude who is right there could absolutely say no I didn't see anything you shouldn't be throwing that flag from 20 yards away... But officials get influenced by other officials and clearly the guy throwing the flag from 20 yards away can get the guy who saw the play right there to agree 

 

That's officials influencing other officials.. because the guy close to it didn't throw a flag cuz he didn't see it... It took the guy from further away to convince him

[Bill from NYC]

Well, I did say dishonest, no? I mean calls influenced by gambling or hints from owners.

Edited Monday at 11:14 AM by Bill from NYC

[BontitaBills]

12 hours ago, Bill from NYC said:

Well, I did say dishonest, no? I mean calls influenced by gambling of hints from owners.

This should be constant to limit the amount of cheating going on.  Every 3 years a new batch of refs.  

[Mr. WEO]

16 hours ago, Bill from NYC said:

In your opinion, do any NFL refs make dishonest calls?

 

Dishonesty has to be proven.  There have been decades for proponents of these conspiracies to find and provide evidence of their claims.

 

We are still waiting.

[Bill from NYC]

4 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

Dishonesty has to be proven.  There have been decades for proponents of these conspiracies to find and provide evidence of their claims.

 

We are still waiting.

OK but I am just asking your opinion as a fan. I'm not seeking concrete evidence.

[Augie]

On 4/1/2026 at 1:40 PM, BillyJoeBills said:

NFL’s richest sport and they use part-timer refs while NBA and MLB hire full timers.  Freaking refs screwed us in Denver “interception”; rushed their ruling bc they wanted to the game along; probably didn’t want to miss their flight so they can return to their real full time job

 

To be fair, the NFL has 17 regular season games and single elimination playoffs. The NBA has 82 games and MLB has 162 games, and they both have a series of games at each level of the playoffs. It’s not apples and apples. They NEED full time refs. 

 

I don’t hate that the NFL refs have outside careers. I don’t know what they can do all offseason (or even during the week) to be better refs the next time around. You put in the time that’s needed, and you should be fine.  They make me crazy, and Cooks caught that ball. That call sealed the fate of McD and set the new course for our team (love it or not). That was a blown call with enormous implications, imo. But I don’t know how being an accountant or an engineer during the week is really to blame. 

 

What I do hate is how they can miss such obvious calls at times, or take forever to get something simple correct. The Saints missing the Super Bowl on that blown PI call is still one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen in sports. How does THAT happen??? Replacements won’t help, and no matter what they do there will always be complaining. That’s just a fact of life. 

 

[Augie]

9 hours ago, BontitaBills said:

This should be constant to limit the amount of cheating going on.  Every 3 years a new batch of refs.  

 

Are you so afraid of gambling influencing refs that you want to set an artificial line they cross and then kick the experienced people off the jobs they’ve been practicing at most of their adult lives? Get rid of your most experienced people every year? 

 

I prefer a merit based system where refs are evaluated, graded and rewarded for solid work. A lot of companies will set a 10% (or some other arbitrary number) where the bottom 10% get replaced. I don’t love that because it’s blind to context. You could have the Dream Team of refs so you shouldn’t have to get rid of someone. 

 

The NBA felt a lot better about themselves before Tim Donaghy became public. Refs need to be open to some scrutiny regarding their personal lives.  Having said that, I’m sure that almost all questionable calls are blown, not rigged. But you can never know for sure.

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

16 hours ago, BontitaBills said:

This should be constant to limit the amount of cheating going on.  Every 3 years a new batch of refs.  

 

This is a terrible idea. If you are a new NFL official, where is the incentive to get better or even care when you know you are out in 3 years whether you are the best official ever or just average. 

 

How would this fix cheating? If anything, it would incentivize officials to take bribes. 

[BontitaBills]

9 hours ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

 

This is a terrible idea. If you are a new NFL official, where is the incentive to get better or even care when you know you are out in 3 years whether you are the best official ever or just average. 

 

How would this fix cheating? If anything, it would incentivize officials to take bribes. 

Do officials get better over time?  My opinion they get worse.  Think term limits

like politics.  Maybe they get another 3 years if they do a great job.  The way it is now officiating is the number one negative of the NFL.