GOODELL WALKS FINE LINE ON WORK OF NFL REFEREES
Commissioner says quality of officiating ‘always a focus’ after Lions-Packers debacle
Roger Goodell weighed in Wednesday on the shoot show of an ending to Monday night’s NFL game in Green Bay, where on-field officials practically stole victory from the Detroit Lions to hand the Packers a last-second 23-22 win.
To close the owners’ two-day fall meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the NFL commissioner dropped a few interesting comments and news nuggets:
On the Packers-Lions debacle:
■ “Officiating is always a focus for us,” he said. “You never want to see a game where people are talking about the officials afterward. It was a great football game played by two great teams … It’s tough to be in that situation, so we have to do everything we can to improve officiating.”
Goodell was asked about his confidence in senior vice-president of officiating Al Riveron’s ability to work out whatever issues may exist within his ranks of 122 game officials. Goodell didn’t answer directly, other than to say: “Al and his team and (executive vice-president of football operations) Troy (Vincent) and everyone, we’re all focusing on how we continue to prepare our officials.”
On the tiny percentage of
■ pass-interference reviews that result in an overturn: “I think (coaches) understood that replay wasn’t going to correct every pass-interference close call. That is … we’re not re-officiating these plays. So the thought process was to correct the obvious and clear error … I think it’s settling out where we expected it to.”
The problem is the NFL’s interpretation of “obvious and clear” since the pre-season has gradually become so hardline as to basically mean “unless a player swings a baseball bat at the knees of a rival player.”
On the idea of a draft lottery
■ being instituted to discourage bad teams from tanking for the No. 1 overall pick, Goodell said: “The good news for us is that we don’t see that. I don’t think the league has ever been more competitive than it is today … The competitiveness of our game obviously is critical. I don’t think that’s solved with a lottery.”
Goodell said the league is
■ digging deeper to put in perspective news released Tuesday about concussions suffered in the pre-season. The good news is such brain injuries reported in practices dropped 33 per cent from 45 to 30. The bad news, the league said, is concussions suffered in August games shot up 44 per cent from 34 in 2018 to 49 this year.
Goodell confirmed reports that
■ a 17-game regular season is being discussed with the players union as part of negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement to go into effect in 2021. Goodell said the regular season still would start three days following Labour Day, but the Super Bowl would be pushed forward one week further into February. Expanded rosters would be possible in a 17-game schedule.
“We haven’t taken anything” off the table, Goodell said.
The commissioner said he isn’t
■ concerned “at all” about visiting fans swamping Los Angeles Chargers home games at Dignity Health Sports Park, as Pittsburgh Steelers fans did Sunday (and as San Francisco 49ers fans similarly did up the highway at the Los Angeles Rams’ home, Memorial Coliseum). Goodell said it’s no judgment on the Chargers franchise’s viability in L.A.
“I think that’s the reality of what you see in a lot of stadiums around the league,” he said of visiting fans gobbling up tickets. “Secondary ticketing is a big issue now. We have certain teams that travel better than others … We’ll continue to see more of that.”
Goodell said the league still is
■ investigating unemployed wide receiver Antonio Brown after a former female trainer of his filed a civil lawsuit last month claiming he sexually assaulted and harassed her over two years.
“Our folks have been working diligently on that,” Goodell said. “There’s a lot of material to go through.”
FINS SWITCH TO FITZ
The dilemma for the 0-5 Miami Dolphins — whether or not you believe they’re trying hard to tank for the No. 1 overall draft pick — is who to play at quarterback for the remainder of this season?
Veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick, who turns 37 next month, has performed better than second-year player Josh Rosen.
“Fitz” has started twice, completed 56 per cent of his throws for two touchdowns and four interceptions for a 60.1 passer rating. Yeah, pretty bad. But consider Rosen has started three games, completed 53 per cent of his throws for one touchdown and five interceptions for a 52.0 passer rating — even worse.
It’s obvious Dolphins head coach Brian Flores ideally would like to play Rosen the rest of the way. Just last week, Flores announced that he had “settled” on the 22-year-old for the remainder of 2019, only to bench him Sunday for playing so poorly against the Washington Redskins. Fitz came in for the fourth quarter, down 17-3, and nearly pulled out a victory.
Flores said on Monday he was sticking with Rosen — then changed his mind on Wednesday, announcing that ex-Bills QB Fitzpatrick will start Sunday afternoon in Buffalo.
“Kind of came to that conclusion over the last couple of days,” Flores said. “We feel that was the best thing for this team and it will give us the best opportunity for this team to go up into a tough environment and try to pull out a win.
“And we do that on a weekly basis. What’s the best grouping, set of players, offence, defence, kicking game, to help try to win the game? We felt that was the case this week.”