The NFL referees have always been a talking point and after another debacle on national television that cost the Detroit Lions a chance for a road win against the Packers in Green Bay on Monday Night Football, the NFL officials were once again a main story.
I’m not saying officials cost Lions the game. I’m saying three wrong calls and one obvious missed call in one half is not acceptable. Doesn’t matter who wins the game. https://t.co/cJ5USw5pQS
— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) October 15, 2019
That is sickening… the @NFL needs to look at a way to prevent that from happening. Two phantom hands to the face calls really hurts us tonight. Yes, we could have scored TDs, but @Lions played too well to have the game end this way. #DETvsGB @espn
— Barry Sanders (@BarrySanders) October 15, 2019
Booger McFarland won me over tonight. He wasn’t scared to call the officials out for being absolutely trash tonight. Most wouldn’t have done what he did. Loved every second of it & it was absolutely deserved.
— Jordan Strack (@JordanStrack) October 15, 2019
The NFL is consistently the worst officiated sport we have. Every week we say the same thing. The level of incompetence is appalling.
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) October 15, 2019
I love the #NFL but enough is enough. Owners—@getupespn pic.twitter.com/7wmj51AveL
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) October 15, 2019
This is the “Sky Judge” idea that most coaches wanted this spring. NFL did not think it was feasible to give someone that kind of authority. Might be worth a re-visit. https://t.co/OXfpJVwqXa
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) October 15, 2019
That complete whiff by the officials took it from punt/Lions ball to long Rodgers touchdown in the blink of an eye.
NFL refs have never impacted the outcomes of games more negatively than they do now.
— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) October 15, 2019
The refs stole this win from the Lions. Two horrific hands to the face calls on Flowers.
What a joke. #GBvsDET
— Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) October 15, 2019
According to the roster of officials, there are 33 officials that have at the most 5 years of experience including this season. There are 5 first year officials & out of the 33, 20 have no more than 3 years experience.
On the other side, there are 23 officials that have at least 20 years of experience.
You can look at this in a few ways. Of course the less experienced officials could be missing calls because of their newness to the game. As well as for the more experienced officials, they could just be not as quick as in their earlier years in the league. One could presume that the older officials could be sticking up for their less experienced members of their crews on big calls instead of over turning a mistake.
My hope is that the newer officials can get their feet wet & we get a new generation of referees that know the rules, can see the calls happen in real time & if they make mistakes just own them & have replay over turn calls instead of trying to protect their crew.
Senior Vice President of Officiating, Al Riveron has a tough gig, I’m not saying it’s easy at all but he has got to do a better job of getting the right calls more consistently. I think that at least starts with making the officials full time & having training year round.
