Archive for September 25th, 2012

I love watching football while a nice slow cook simmers away in the kitchen and fills the house with comfortable smells.  But the NFL games of late have rocked that comfort.

Over the past few days I’ve read a couple articles pointing out what the replacement refs need to do in order to gain back some credibility.  I think that is a little unfair.  The league created this mess with the lock-out of the professional refs and the league should step in to help.  Here are five suggestions:

Pass interference seems to be causing a lot of trouble for the replacement refs.  Both Sunday night and Monday night calls came when there was no interference and were missed when it was flagrant.  It’s unfair to expect the newbies to get up to speed with the fast pace that is NFL football.  So lets just get rid of this penalty.  No defensive or offensive pass interference would certainly make it easier to get the call right.

If you can’t get the call right the first time, you might as well take another look.  The replacement refs already started trying this one out in the Vikings-49ers game.  If a coach or player yells really loud they are probably right and a review needs to be implemented–number timeouts or challenges remaining be damned!

As the score at any given point in the game becomes more of an approximation than accurately reflection of action on the field, it would be prudent to require a larger lead before declaring a winner.  Take the questionable call at the end of the Monday Night game that handed the Sea Hawks a victory over the Packers.  The final score was 12-14. That’s way to close to determine an actual winner.  A 10 point lead should be required before victory can be declared.

As an incentive to get things right, penalties should be applicable to the league and referees for blown calls. A panel of made of a cross section of network commentators would have the power to propose a penalty with Adam Schefter appointed as ultimate arbiter.  Decisions to be released via Twitter.

Lets face it, we can’t expect the replacement refs to know every rule.  Game after game there seem to be long discussions between the refs of what call should be made.  In the event certainty cannot be reached, a decision should be made with a coin toss.  In the interest of expediency, the head-tail call made by each team at the start of the game can be utilized and the determinate toss made by the head referee.

With these modest changes football can go back to the being America’s fall pass time and I can go back to relaxed viewing over a good cook and cold beer.