FALSE FLAGS
Confusion is rampant, but expert in officiating says performance no worse than norm
IT IS “Roughing the Zebras” season again, where an apoplectic public throws the flag on the NFL for the personal foul of screwing their team, be it reallife or fantasy or wager.
It is even more critical now for the league to move to extinguish as best it can its week-to-week, year-after-year firestorm largely because of the proliferation of betting sites and its embrace of sportsbook partners — such as Caesars Entertainment, DraftKings and FanDuel. More than ever, with eyeballs everywhere addicted to the NFL, and social media content oversaturating the brain, we are talking about the integrity of the game.
These officials, and it should be recognized there are more pros than joes, have a thankless job, because to err is human, and the humans in the striped shirts err too often for the paying public to rein in their “Any given Sunday” outrage, and refined instant replay and technological advances cannot fix everything.
If it isn’t, “What is a catch?” (see Calvin Johnson, see Dez Bryant) it is, “What is pass interference?” Or, “What is roughing the passer?” Or, “What is taunting?” Or, “What is a helmet-tohelmet hit?”
It is always something, and it always will be something.
Serby Says asked Fox Sports rules analyst Mike Pereira how he would characterize the state of officiating.
“The state of officiating, I would call it right now the same state that it’s been for the last number of years,” Pereira said. “You get the taunting call that raises the ire of everybody around the country — and I understand that. You get the roughing-the-passer that shouldn’t have been made. People now with DirecTV and whatever, they watch every game. Those mistakes have been made year in and year out, and probably they’re more visible now than they’ve ever been.
“I know people would shoot me if I say this, but I don’t think the officiating’s any different this year than it was last year during the pandemic or the years before that.”
There isn’t a fan base that hasn’t felt victimized or cheated by a bad or horrific call:
Better off not asking Bears fans about the league’s crackdown on taunting and referee Tony Corrente flagging and bumping their own Cassius Marsh against the Steelers.
Better off not asking Washington fans about Chase Young’s phantom roughing the passer penalty on Matt Ryan.
Better off not asking Saints fans about the roughing the passer call on Kaden Elliss that
negated an end-zone interception of Ryan Tannehill. On and on it goes. And oh, by the way, don’t dare broach the 2018 NFC Championship with Saints fans when a blatant late pass interference against Rams cornerback Nickell RobeyColeman incredulously and inexcusably was not called, and the city of N’awlins felt robbed of a Super Bowl berth.
“Some are going to go for you, some are going to go against you,” Pereira said, “but we can’t say that 2021 is the first year that the fans are up in arms.”
Some have argued that to solve “the officiating crisis,” the NFL needs full-time officials. The league disbanded its twoyear, full-time officiating program prior to the 2019 season. Pereira argues against full-time officials.
“I just don’t buy it,” he said. “I just can’t buy it on the simplest levels of people bitch about baseball umpires, and they are full-time. And they scream about basketball officials, and they are full-time. If you had 100 games to play, or 160 games to play, obviously then I’d get it. But I’m not one in the belief that hire 130 officials full-time in the NFL to really not get all that many more reps makes any sense.”
Pereira, former official and vice president of officiating, has long been in favor of a Sky Judge — an eighth official in the booth.
“Overall, the percentage of accuracy is probably better now with the video assistant and the expedited reviews than it’s ever been before,” Pereira said. “I certainly don’t like some of the calls that are being made, but you’re talking about judgment calls, 130 people, if you try to get them on the exact same page on the area of gray, which is basically what we’re talking about here, it’s virtually impossible . ... To be honest, in my opinion, it’s not new.
“Since we started in 1999 by bringing replay back and added and added and added, and this video assistant is now the replay official, I think it might be the next logical step, and could even get involved in pass interference in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter, possibly. Who knows? Who knows where it could end?”
It needs to end with an eighth official in the booth.
“Put this guy up there and let him get involved in player safety issues,” Pereira said. “Then we throw the caveat in there of, hey, in the last two minutes, let him get involved in pass interference when it has a huge impact on the game at the end of the game — a la the Rams and the Saints. That’s to me the way that I would like to see it expanded, but I also say that’s the way I think it’s going.”
No one wants to hear that the national pastime is the hardest sport to officiate. But it is.