NFL Prepared to Hire Replacement Refs

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

There was an average of about 17 flags per game in 2005...and 15 in 2011, per my recollection

17 to 15 flags per game seems like alot of flags. The NFL probably gives a bonus to the refs who throw the most flags so they can extend the game and sell more advertisement.

[skinsfan69]

Originally Posted by Defensewins

You say that now until the Redskins get screwed over by being fouled and the refs do not call it.
Orakpo gets held a half dozen times during a game and it does not get called. I think the culture in the NFL of cheating just enough so you do not get called for it needs to change before you start telling refs not to call certain fouls. Then the refs will not have to throw so many flags.

Like in soccer if the foul merits it they get yellow carded. After two yellows in one game you get kicked out of that game and suspended for another game.
That would stop the cheating and subsequent flags quickly.

I think the bad calls even out most of the time.

[skinsfan69]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

There was an average of about 17 flags per game in 2005...and 15 in 2011, per my recollection

I wonder what the average was in the 90's and 80's.

[skinsfan69]

Originally Posted by firstdown

17 to 15 flags per game seems like alot of flags. The NFL probably gives a bonus to the refs who throw the most flags so they can extend the game and sell more advertisement.

Wouldn't surprise me at all. It seems like all the stopping and starting of the games has gotten worse over the years. W/ the slow instant re-play process, numerous flags being thrown. One thing I'd like them to do is get rid of the 2 minute warning. Really no need for it at all.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by skinsfan69

Wouldn't surprise me at all. It seems like all the stopping and starting of the games has gotten worse over the years. W/ the slow instant re-play process, numerous flags being thrown. One thing I'd like them to do is get rid of the 2 minute warning. Really no need for it at all.

I have to agree it seems like they are starting and stopping the game much more then in the past.

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by skinsfan69

I wonder what the average was in the 90's and 80's.

I don't know. I do know it steadily went up the first few years of the 2000s and has basically plateaued (if not gone down) during the final 5-6 years

Replays have slowed the game down for sure. Average length of MNF last year was about 5-6 minutes longer than the previous year.

But referees do not get any sort of bonus for throwing more flags

[FRPLG]

They start and stop the game more because there is now more of an emphasis on getting things "right". Rules have gotten more complex and the game is faster. It is harder now than ever to ref the game so instead of letting mistakes simply wash out they want the officials to take their time and act as a team so they can conceivably get more calls right. Hence more conversations and such.

[SolidSnake84]

I could be in the small majority but i still feel that certain penalties need some kind of review. Now i'm not saying every single flag has a review option, but in certain situations, like pass interference when it is very questionable. Those kind of calls change the game if done wrong. Also in situations where they call roughing the passer when really nothing was done to the QB other than brushing up against him or lightly touching him...

[SBXVII]

I wonder if this will lead to any further investigating of labor issues, ie; the Redskins and Cowboys punishments?

NFL Referees Association files unfair labor practice charge against NFL | ProFootballTalk

[SBXVII]

Is it interesting enough that the NFL had two teams file grievances about punishments, then the NFLPA file collusion claim against the NFL, now the NFLRA has filed unfair labor practices? Oh and I forgot the whole concussion lawsuit.

To me if it walks like a duck, acts like a duck, and quacks like a duck..... it's a duck. Whatever the NFL has done or recently done their making waves and pissing people off. They need to back off themselves and make some changes to their policy and maybe go back to how they used to handle their business. I understand their idea of trying to make it a better NFL and safer NFL but the commish is ruining the game with all the little snap decisions their making lately.

[SBXVII]

........ the rebuttle. lol. pretty quick.

NFL says NFLRA charge has “no merit” | ProFootballTalk

[calia]

If the replacements will call O-linemen for holding 'Rak, that will be an improvement. He is held easily 6 or 7 times a game (probably more) -- I swear one guy had a throw net.

[sportscurmudgeon]

Originally Posted by skinsfan69

The refs do a bad job imo. Too flag happy. Maybe the replacements will do a better job.

Could happen - - but don't bet on it.

There have been replacement refs in MLB, the NBA and the NHL in the past and none of them has done a good job.

The NFL once had replacement refs - - I think it was 2001 but don't hold me to that - - and before one of the games, one of the replacement refs went up to Jerry Rice and asked Rice for his autograph. Just a guess, but that guy is probably not going to get a call-back from the league this time around.

You may think that the NFL refs "do a bad job". I suspect that if the NFL replaces them with guys who have been officiating in the Sun Belt Conference and/or some Division III conference, things will NOT get better.

Oh, and by the way, the NFL has already said that it will NOT be trying to poach replacement refs from the "top conferences" in college football so forget about the guys who do SEC or Big Ten or PAC-12 games.

I officiated sports for 37 years. I did more basketball than all the other sports combined - -but I did a little football too. I officated games played by "kids" as compared to the NFL where the game is played by "adults".

When I was the best official that I could be, I could not have been plucked by the NFL to be given a three month indoctrination program and then gone out and done anyting but embarrass myself on national TV and in front of about 60,000 attendees.

[sportscurmudgeon]

Originally Posted by skinsfan69

Wouldn't surprise me at all. It seems like all the stopping and starting of the games has gotten worse over the years. W/ the slow instant re-play process, numerous flags being thrown. One thing I'd like them to do is get rid of the 2 minute warning. Really no need for it at all.

The 2-minute warning used to be important when the stadium clocks were unofficial and the offical time was kept by an official on the field.

Today, the 2-minute warning is a way for the networks to fit in another sequence of ads - - which generate the revenue that allows the networks to pay the NFL billions of dollars to televise the games which goes to the owners who pay the players who ...

[sportscurmudgeon]

Originally Posted by SBXVII

I wonder if this will lead to any further investigating of labor issues, ie; the Redskins and Cowboys punishments?

NFL Referees Association files unfair labor practice charge against NFL | ProFootballTalk

If prior action is a predictor of future action, the NLRB will rule on an unfair labor practice charge made here sometime around 2014. If the NFL officials are still off doing other things in 2014, then the replacements the NFL will have hired will be reaching an acceptable competence level by then.