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It is about time for us as fans of the National Football League to start holding the Commissioner Roger Goodell and the owners accountable for the terrible officiating that is once again taking place.

It has become quite apparent that several teams are getting preferential treatment, while other teams are getting jobbed left and right. Bad calls are going to happen, but when you have replay to supposedly fix those calls and they still get them wrong, despite what we are all looking at and the former officials on the network broadcasts telling you they are getting them wrong, it is time to do something.

I nearly fell out of my chair back in February when Goodell said that there is no problem with the officiating in the NFL. We all saw it. The officiating last season was probably as bad as it has ever been. Since you cannot seem to get it right with replay, then let’s drop replay all together and go back to living with bad calls, again, because they are going to happen. Officials are human beings and they make mistakes.

But for Goodell to set there in front of the national media and claim at the annual Super Bowl week news conference that I don’t think it’s ever been better in the league. There are over 42,000 plays in a season. Multiple infractions could occur on any play. Take that out or extrapolate that. That’s hundreds if not millions of potential fouls. And our officials do an extraordinary job of getting those. Are there mistakes in the context of that? Yes, they are not perfect and officiating never will be.” Well, that is just laughable.

This past Sunday alone, I saw watched a couple of games and watched numerous replays showing bad calls. At least one of those game cost a team a victory. That cannot happen. And let’s face it, when the NFL does decide to tell us the truth and release statements the following week apologizing to those teams about the bad calls, it is no consolation.

I think I might have a solution that would help curb the poor officiating and the NFL’s willingness to run cover for the officials. Just like coaches and players, who have to stand at a podium or in front of their lockers and answer questions about calls that were made and mistakes that they made, so should the officials.

After every game, the head official should have to stand at a podium and get drilled by the media about why certain calls were made, why some penalties were ignored all together and how did the “command center” in New York figure into the equation. Then, the head replay officials should have to stand at the same podium and go through the same process.

If nothing else, perhaps it will make the officials on the field, in the replay booth and New York think twice about how they are officiating the games. Maybe, just maybe, it will make them take a second or two longer to go over the replays and try make the best all possible with the information and technology they have available.

I do not expect them to get every call right. Sometimes you just do not have a good angle, or there are so many big bodies around the ball, that it is impossible to come to a conclusion. I am okay with that. But do everything physically possible to attempt to get the right call. And for heaven’s sake, stop playing favorites with certain teams. We all know which ones I am talking about, so I will not single them out.

The 2023 season is shaping up to be a good one. There are a lot of good teams in the NFL right now. All I am asking is for them to get a fair shake. For more years than I can count, I have said that NFL games are predetermined, for which I have been ridiculed. More and more, I am seeing people say the exact same thing. They feel the games are scripted.

I would certainly hope that the games are not fixed, but I am not naïve enough to believe because of the amount of money that is changing hands, both through legalized gambling, and what the owners are raking in, that it is out of the question. The better the team the more money there is to be made. If you are one of the “hot teams” then there is even more money available to be brought in.

The people in New York know that, and so do the NFL owners. We turn to them as fans, to “protect the shield” and give us games that are on the up and up. We do not just expect it, we demand it.

 

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com