NFL officiating

People are obsessed with getting the call "correct" but the game is faster (and bigger) and referees aren't starting to process information any faster. Besides, I think for a lot of these calls there really is no "correct" answer - did a part of the ball graze the ground or did he get his hand under? Did the ball really cross the plane of the goal line before his knees hit the ground? Did he bobble the ball for a moment or did he have control through the entire catch? We're talking about events that for all intents and purposes are simultaneous to the normal eye - breaking it down frame by frame isn't going to give us any better answer.

And I think that refs are so fixated on things like "what is a catch" and some other things, that they aren't paying attention to basic rules - like batting, like illegal motion on the last play of a game, like not seeing players report in as eligible.

Replay can be a tool to make games better but it's gone from being a tool to being a major focus of the game. And that makes games a lot worse to watch.

It's too much to ask that the "correct" call be made every time.

But is there any good reason why, say, running into the kicker should ever be missed?

And consistency seems achievable.

Tony Corrente has been bad for years. Guy needs to be put out to pasture ASAP.

<b>Scott Zolak</b> ‏@scottzolak 39m39 minutes ago<br />Talked to others close to it that 87 has been singled out by league to target him on consistent basis for more push offs on him. Singled out<br /><br />@SeoulSoxFan

Investigation please? Because I don't mind if they emphasize it league wide, but... Singled out?

Zo is a raging Homer like the best of us, so, I just shook my salt shaker into my mouth.

Investigation somehow? Is there a precedent for this, or would this be targetgronkgate?

Eddie Jurak said:

But is there any good reason why, say, running into the kicker should ever be missed?

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I would say missing those calls is as easy as missing a call in soccer. There is so much simulation by kickers now that it's really hard to tell in real time how much of the punter flopping around is caused by legit contact. The way to fix this is just the same as it is in soccer: penalize the player for simulation and that shit goes away. Good luck with that, though.

mulluysavage said:

Is there a precedent for this, or would this be targetgronkgate?

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Ever hear of a guy named Michael Irvin? He was once singled out for that very thing. But besides him, there is plenty of precedent in the NFL of singling out a player. Hell, in some cases, new rules are implemented because of that. Here's a nice breakdown of some rules that were created as a result of these operations (missing is the new Dez Bryant rule, since this article was from 2008).

I didn't need Zo to tell me that. It's been obvious all season that Gronk has been targeted for pushing off and the Pats receivers targeted for rub routes.

This is the world Jim Irsay created. Sit on the rules committee, cry about injustice, find ways to weaken opponents. This has been status quo for over a decade.

One of the things that stands out from SB 49 is how few penalties were called. You often hear during SBs that the refs are going to let the game be decided by the players.

Now that can go too far. Non-calls such as the PI that arguably should have been called on Randy Moss in SB 42 suck. The Seahawks have a beef on the non-call on Butler last year. (On the trip on Lockette several plays before the pick.)

But if I have to choose between having to hold my breath on EVERY FREAKING PLAY before knowing that no flag had been thrown and a few non-calls, I'll take the latter.

Said differently, if the refs indeed affirmatively decide to let them play in the SB, why isn't that standard applied to other games? I never understood that, nor have I ever understood the swallow the whistles thing in OT hockey, to the extent it still applies.

Consistency. That's one of the most important things officials can provide. Knowing what a penalty is. Knowing the strike zone. Etc.

Someone told me that Boomer Esiason said last night's game was decided by the refs this morning on WFAN. You know things are bad when he becomes the voice of reason.

Oh, and Cris Collinsworth should die in a fire.

As a player it must be incredibly frustrating to have such inconsistent calls, bad ref's are one thing that every player can get use to they just have to get an understanding of how things will be called for the day. But inconsistently awful refs are almost too much and 87 defiantly has a bulls eye on his back right now. The SF/ARI game was an abortion, and every week it's harder to find games that have a good consistent flow than ones that don't. At this pace they should all get ear pieces and be told what to do, I've never seen such a systemic fail in officiating in any sport ever. Good breakdown above of some thoughts on why this is happening, but it once again highlights the NFL's surge in success is in-spite of the product on the field going backwards in quality...

The Gronk OPIs clearly reflect a message to game referees--I just can't imagine it is anything else, since the actual quality of the calls is so weak. This is not Browner actually fouling guys most plays and getting called for some of them.

I hope (and expect, actually) the Pats are behind-the-scenes bitching up a storm about it, as it has gotten very blatant. I wouldn't be surprised if it got to ownership level this week, though behind the scenes.

The Chung call is even less arguable on the merits, though it is just 'generic crappy officiating' rather than targeted bad officiating. What a sad thing that distinction is what we're left with in the NFL today.

Its just 22 fast physical guys engaging each other in too little time for seven human officials to consistently make the correct judgement in real time, in the context of a league that has consistently implemented rule changes that make the game harder to officiate, especially downfield.

I don't know the answer. All penalties to be reviewed? More officials on the field? Rule changes that allow more contact between WRs and DBs? But I don't really think its the fault of the officials. They are being set up to fail by the system.

TheoShmeo said:

Oh, and Cris Collinsworth should die in a fire.

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I'm usually with you on this train, but I thought Cris was pretty good last night. He has his moments for sure but he numerous times said the Refs were clueless on the big plays against the pats, including several moments of silence where he stopped the path he was going down knowing it would in my opinion be very anti-nfl. Probably the most glowing endorsements I've heard from him about the Patriots also in this game, I think deep down he respects what they have done and borders on fanboy but doesn't want to let that out of the closet.

I have a feeling the worst is yet to come (for the Pats, that is). Just wait 'til the playoffs.

Honestly got a LAL-SAC 2002 Game 6 vibe from last night.

Edit: BTW, Tony Corrente had our 2014 AFC championship loss in Denver, the Colts game this year, and called 15 penalties on us last year in Minnesota.

"Integrity of the game"

"Bitching up a storm" would probably be seen by the NFL as
positive feedback.

The frustrating part of the officiating for me was that the refs weren't calling a tight game or a let the boys play game. They were calling it tight on one team and letting the other one play. Hands to the face is perfectly OK... If you are a Bronco.

The lack of consistency is maddening. Relatively speaking, the refs did let them play last night... except on 3? 4? of the biggest plays of the game for the Patriots.

Then, on big plays for the Broncos - it seemed like the whistles were buried firmly in the refs' pockets - despite it looking like there were similar types of infractions all across the field.

I'd also like to mention that only 5 yards and a 1st down for defensive holding in the final 2 minutes is a joke. They should also add +10 seconds to the clock, or something. Might as well just tackle the receiver at the LOS on every play if you're trading 5 yards for a 10 second runoff.

I am surprised only by the fact that it has taken 12 weeks to get to this point. I think that's a reflection of the fact that Pats as a team were not targeted with bad calls over the first 10 games. Thankfully, the massive conspiracy has less life in this thread than the GOAT thread.

The Pats ought to send in the bad calls with emphasis on Gronk. Then move on. The bad officiating was necessary to cause the loss, but not sufficient. The muffed punt was the pivotal moment, and the handling of that moment with your third string guy, a rookie no less, in bad weather and up 2 TDs showed a very rare lapse in game management. Whether that was on the rookie or the coaches should soon be know.

The officiating League wide has been awful all season.

Id be surprised if the Harper punt muff actually cost them more equity than the Chung call on the TD drive. That call was literally worth over a half of a win of equity.

Kenny F'ing Powers said:

I didn't need Zo to tell me that. It's been obvious all season that Gronk has been targeted for pushing off and the Pats receivers targeted for rub routes.

This is the world Jim Irsay created. Sit on the rules committee, cry about injustice, find ways to weaken opponents. This has been status quo for over a decade.

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This. A million times this and yet it's the Pats who have the tarnish for their 'questionable' practices.

Rub routes/OPI have been a league wide focus. My only beef has been the way Gronk has been officiated this year. Its a complete joke. He's pushed off a couple of times for sure, but he gets assaulted without getting calls and then gets random OPI penalties on actions that other players could take hundreds of times without drawing a flag.

dcmissle said:

I am surprised only by the fact that it has taken 12 weeks to get to this point. I think that's a reflection of the fact that Pats as a team were not targeted with bad calls over the first 10 games.

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They wanted to see how the team started out. If they had a normal Super Bowl hangover, like Seattle is having...then hands off. At 10-0, you gotta starting doing something.

Edit: I've never been more at peace with leaving this league after TB/BB are gone.

Brady was about as critical as he's ever been of officiating on D&C this morning - on phone and can't link right now, but it's worth a listen. Gist: frustrating last 20+ minutes of game, no answer for the two massive third down penalty calls bringing huge plays back, said he was as pissed off about this game as he's ever been, including losing Super Bowls, said there was mass confusion re: the lack of delay of game call on the Den injury (with no TOs remaining), had no idea what the rule was and said something to the effect of, "there are just so many frickin rules"

Stitch01 said:

Id be surprised if the Harper punt muff actually cost them more equity than the Chung call on the TD drive. That call was literally worth over a half of a win of equity.

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Or the Martin completion called back for the Jackson hold earlier in the 4th. That would have given them a 1st down in FG range, up 7, and there was less of an infraction there than the Chung play IMO.

There were also multiple non-called holds on Denver's first TD drive, when it looked like they weren't going to be able to get anything going (Jones was egregiously held on Daniels' 2nd and 7 catch). More subtle way to keep them in the game -- without that help the score probably gets to 21-0 and they have to get more aggressive.

Erik Hanson's Hook said:

I have a feeling the worst is yet to come (for the Pats, that is). Just wait 'til the playoffs.

Honestly got a LAL-SAC 2002 Game 6 vibe from last night.

Edit: BTW, Tony Corrente had our 2014 AFC championship loss in Denver, the Colts game this year, and called 15 penalties on us last year in Minnesota.

"Integrity of the game"

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It usually doesn't work this way. The start of the season sees ref's go over the top with penalties and then they slow as the season wears on and teams adjust. I mentioned it upthread, but the OPI on Pat's rub routes & blocking downfield is a good example. The Patriots were heavily targeted for this early in the season, and it has slowed significantly over the last month.

My guess is that there was a reminder before the game to make sure Gronk wasn't getting away with OPI, and the ref's followed through. Still, by playoff time these things generally disappear.

The Patriots allowed the ref's to play a part in the game in large part due to the muffed punt return. It doesn't excuse the ref's for an atrocious showing, but the Patriots basically had to play ball control for 5 minutes, and it was a task the defense showed they were up for for three and a half quarters. It's easy to point at the ref's, and they absolutely played their part. Still, the Patriots just had to take care of business in the 4th quarter and this game was over.

Toe Nash said:

Or the Martin completion called back for the Jackson hold earlier in the 4th. That would have given them a 1st down in FG range, up 7, and there was less of an infraction there than the Chung play IMO.

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Yup. That was no hold either. There were so many replays where Al and Cris were just silent. They barely knew what to say. The league has been totally embarrassed by the refs all year.

ifmanis5 said:

Yup. That was no hold either. There were so many replays where Al and Cris were just silent. They barely knew what to say. The league has been totally embarrassed by the refs all year.

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It was great last night when they just decided to not show a replay of the Talib hold none call in OT. Just a bunch of shots of players to kill time as Brady is about to rip off the refs head.

Erik Hanson's Hook said:

They wanted to see how the team started out. If they had a normal Super Bowl hangover, like Seattle is having...then hands off. At 10-0, you gotta starting doing something.

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You know, if you make a tin foil hat and wear it at just the right angle, you can pick up the audio from Goodell's conference calls where he's orchestrating this.

Erik Hanson's Hook said:

They wanted to see how the team started out. If they had a normal Super Bowl hangover, like Seattle is having...then hands off. At 10-0, you gotta starting doing something.

Edit: I've never been more at peace with leaving this league after TB/BB are gone.

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Erik Hanson's Hook said:

They wanted to see how the team started out. If they had a normal Super Bowl hangover, like Seattle is having...then hands off. At 10-0, you gotta starting doing something.

Edit: I've never been more at peace with leaving this league after TB/BB are gone.

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Well they were 8-0 when they hit the bye and beat the Giants by a point the first game back. So why not a bad call or two in that one?

For that matter, how about the SB, when they already been identified as villain? It would not be the first time a call flipped the SB -- see Seattle/Pitts.

I think you are seeing ineptitude as conspiracy. But I do believe Gronk is getting the Shaq treatment, and that should be highlighted by the team in a way that does not get them into obvious trouble.

dcmissle said:

The officiating League wide has been awful all season.

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The officiating League wide has been awful for many seasons. The main difference between regular and the replacement officials was the coverage and attention.

There are much bigger college fans on here than I but imo the officiating in the top conferences is much better than the NFL. Do they miss calls? Of course, happens in every sport. But overall they seem much better and have a better grasp of the rulebook.


Gronk is definitely a target now. He now has a reputation and the refs are focusing on him. Complaining likely will not help matters.

Stitch01 said:

Rub routes/OPI have been a league wide focus. My only beef has been the way Gronk has been officiated this year. Its a complete joke. He's pushed off a couple of times for sure, but he gets assaulted without getting calls and then gets random OPI penalties on actions that other players could take hundreds of times without drawing a flag.

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Yes and no. It's a month old, but this ESPN article shows roughly the same amount of OPI called last year as this year.

The Patriots, however, have been targeted twice as much as any other team in the NFL for OPI. They've been targeted 9 times for OPI so far this year, roughly once a game. The Broncos - the team notorious for utilizing rub routes - have 0 OPI's this year. The Chargers, widely known to utilize the rub route as well, have only been flagged three times for OPI.

Yes, these numbers include "true" OPI (Gronk push off), but I think it emphasizes pretty well how much the NFL has focused on neutering the Patriots offense.

Kenny F'ing Powers said:

It usually doesn't work this way. The start of the season sees ref's go over the top with penalties and then they slow as the season wears on and teams adjust. I mentioned it upthread, but the OPI on Pat's rub routes & blocking downfield is a good example. The Patriots were heavily targeted for this early in the season, and it has slowed significantly over the last month.

My guess is that there was a reminder before the game to make sure Gronk wasn't getting away with OPI, and the ref's followed through. Still, by playoff time these things generally disappear.

The Patriots allowed the ref's to play a part in the game in large part due to the muffed punt return. It doesn't excuse the ref's for an atrocious showing, but the Patriots basically had to play ball control for 5 minutes, and it was a task the defense showed they were up for for three and a half quarters. It's easy to point at the ref's, and they absolutely played their part. Still, the Patriots just had to take care of business in the 4th quarter and this game was over.

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The frustrating part is that they made the key plays that would have iced the game. And then those plays were called back via questionable penalties.

Basically, they had to make the plays two or three times in order to win.

Kenny F'ing Powers said:

The Patriots allowed the ref's to play a part in the game in large part due to the muffed punt return. It doesn't excuse the ref's for an atrocious showing, but the Patriots basically had to play ball control for 5 minutes, and it was a task the defense showed they were up for for three and a half quarters. It's easy to point at the ref's, and they absolutely played their part. Still, the Patriots just had to take care of business in the 4th quarter and this game was over.

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More than one thing can be bad at once. See my post above -- the game shouldn't have even been close when he muffed the punt.

Here's Denver's drives to start the game:
3 and out
3 and out
11 plays, then the -13 yard sack, punt
2 plays, INT
3 and out

They were doing NOTHING.
Then:
10 plays, 77 yards, TD with multiple missed holds

Yeah, complaining about the refs gets old and I don't believe it's a conspiracy rather than incompetence and home bias, but there were multiple terrible calls that changed the game completely and they nearly all favored one team.

Kenny F'ing Powers said:

Yes and no. It's a month old, but this ESPN article shows roughly the same amount of OPI called last year as this year.

The Patriots, however, have been targeted twice as much as any other team in the NFL for OPI. They've been targeted 9 times for OPI so far this year, roughly once a game. The Broncos - the team notorious for utilizing rub routes - have 0 OPI's this year. The Chargers, widely known to utilize the rub route as well, have only been flagged three times for OPI.

Yes, these numbers include "true" OPI (Gronk push off), but I think it emphasizes pretty well how much the NFL has focused on neutering the Patriots offense.

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Yeah it was an emphasis last year as well, didn't realize the gap wasn't as big this year as last year.

Gronk getting 6 OPI is the reason the Pats have been targeted more than any other team. Why Gronk is being officiated differently, I don't pretend to know, but he is.

I'd like to think a high profile nationally televised game would be the tipping point for public opinion to start driving meaningful change in how the NFL handles officiating. However, I have not hope that will be the case because the villainous Patriots were the victim. To most it is clear that a few changes have to be made. The first is to get rid of the whiner sheet where teams submit their list of things for refs to look out for. The refs should be doing their own film studies to understand the tendencies of the teams they will be officiating. They should have regular reviews with the teams that include video clips of what they see as regular and systemic issues. They do this in the preseason, although it appears to be limited to general rules of emphasis and not specific team or player schemes/actions. Where will that time come from? A full time core of officials whose job is to study the game and work with teams during the practice week. It doesn't have to be a whole crew, but maybe four key positions: Referee, Umpire, Back Judge and Head Linesman. The third area is that they need to remove the choke hold guys like Fisher have on the Competition committee. There has to be term limits (three years) and a rule that mandates that teams have representation on the committee at least 3 of the last 10 years. They should also have equal representation across the conference and divisions so that cadres are not built up to target specific franchises for competitive purposes.

The one area that I think is least likely to happen is for the NFL to get out of the officiating business. There is no reason they cannot contract with an independent organization to provide officials for games. In theory it removes the shenanigans which are obviously happening this year. In reality the bill payer will will always have influence, but at least it introduces some threat of illegality resulting from attempting a desired outcome through crew assignments or specific calls to "watch out" for certain violations.

One big issue, bias and judgment calls aside, is that these guys don't know the fucking rules which is absurd. If the league wants to have a somewhat arcane rule book, have someone at HQ who knows the rules be able to buzz in if the officials aren't interpreting a rule correctly. At least twice yesterday in Arizona/SF the refs ended up getting the down wrong because they screwed up rules enforcement.

Also, Mike Carey's existence proves the NFL has an officiating problem. The guy was a referee for like a million years and every week he comes on TV as a rules expert and fights a losing battle to be correct more often than a fair coin would be. It is patently obvious he has absolutely no fucking idea what the rules are. I doubt he's an outlier.

People keep glossing over the mike pereira comment. There is another key part beyond the change in management.

There has been massive turnover of the on field officials in the past couple of years. It's going to take time for the refs to get up to speed.

And consider that the NFL supposedly got rid of the underperforming refs, but some of the most egregiously bad refs stuck around. I'm looking at you
Boger.

dcmissle said:

Well they were 8-0 when they hit the bye and beat the Giants by a point the first game back. So why not a bad call or two in that one?

For that matter, how about the SB, when they already been identified as villain? It would not be the first time a call flipped the SB -- see Seattle/Pitts.

I think you are seeing ineptitude as conspiracy. But I do believe Gronk is getting the Shaq treatment, and that should be highlighted by the team in a way that does not get them into obvious trouble.

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Are you forgetting the phantom DPI on Butler that was as bad a DPI as has been called in the league this year? That was during the 3rd Q with NE down 7 and would have resulted in a punt instead of an eventual FG to give them a 10 pt lead at the time.

Of course we don't even have to debate the ridiculous officiating in the BUF game.

I'm sure bad officiating league wide has a large part to do with this and while I'm fairly certain Goddell didn't order a code red, I also wouldn't be surprised to find out that questionable calls against NE are not looked at with as much scrutiny as say calls against IND or DEN.

Slow Rheal said:

Brady was about as critical as he's ever been of officiating on D&C this morning - on phone and can't link right now, but it's worth a listen. Gist: frustrating last 20+ minutes of game, no answer for the two massive third down penalty calls bringing huge plays back, said he was as pissed off about this game as he's ever been, including losing Super Bowls, said there was mass confusion re: the lack of delay of game call on the Den injury (with no TOs remaining), had no idea what the rule was and said something to the effect of, "there are just so many frickin rules"

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He also called out the two penalties that negated first downs late in the game (I believe the Gronk OPI and the holding call) and the non-call on LaFell on the 3 and out in OT.

Tom did not pin the game on the zebras and, per usual, noted the many plays the Pats did not make. But I agree, I don't recall him ever being more negative about the officials.

Even SAS and Skip Bayless thought the Pats were screwed. Wow

One, relatively simple thing to do would be to follow BB's request - make ALL calls review-able - including penalties. Mind you , the game would be 4 hours long - and there'd be twice as many penalties.. Or a compromise would be took make just PI calls review-able. (The CFL does this - in fact, there was a PI penalty review - which turned the game - in the Grey Cup last night). As well, the review should be done in New York - this removes any local bias on the part of the head referee.

Personally I think they should get rid of replay - but I'm probably on an island with that stance. To call the NFL's rule book arcane is the understatement of the century - particularly when it comes to interpreting penalties.

The Napkin said:

I guess he should study the rule book and figure it out, right?

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Good line.


But to be fair, it's not like the ref pointed to the ball and/or clock while repeating the clock will wind on my signal.

BigJimEd said:

Good line.


But to be fair, it's not like the ref pointed to the ball and/or clock while repeating the clock will wind on my signal.

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I thought this was puzzling during the game. Why not say after you tell everyone it's an excess timeout that the clock will start on my signal? He was already on the mic.

Hell in the Baltimore game last year the refs were calling defensive assignments and telling them not to cover the ineligible receiver.

tims4wins said:

Even SAS and Skip Bayless thought the Pats were screwed. Wow

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I'm impressed, thought for sure that talk about "not perfect anymore" and Gronk's knee would effectively smokescreen the Zebras. Wonder if ole Rog started making calls to Bristol after that segment aired.

Beomoose said:

I'm impressed, thought for sure that talk about "not perfect anymore" and Gronk's knee would effectively smokescreen the Zebras. Wonder if ole Rog started making calls to Bristol after that segment aired.

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From what I've seen at the gym, Skip loves New England and especially Brady. So I don't find this surprising.

Stitch01 said:

One big issue, bias and judgment calls aside, is that these guys don't know the fucking rules which is absurd. If the league wants to have a somewhat arcane rule book, have someone at HQ who knows the rules be able to buzz in if the officials aren't interpreting a rule correctly. At least twice yesterday in Arizona/SF the refs ended up getting the down wrong because they screwed up rules enforcement.

Also, Mike Carey's existence proves the NFL has an officiating problem. The guy was a referee for like a million years and every week he comes on TV as a rules expert and fights a losing battle to be correct more often than a fair coin would be. It is patently obvious he has absolutely no fucking idea what the rules are. I doubt he's an outlier.

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I don't want your Mike Carey point to get lost because his "expertise" is truly shocking. More than once I've been watching a game thinking a call was obvious, having him disagree and then I have to listen to him try to explain himself. This guy officiated a lot of games I watched and it does bother me that he's dumb.

tims4wins said:

Even SAS and Skip Bayless thought the Pats were screwed. Wow

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Yeah, this is not surprising. Skip loves the Pats, and SAS can say this today because he knows it's still a loss. If they had won.

It's not just NFL officiating that's bad, college is pretty awful as well, maybe even worse. No matter how awful or egregious calls ever get though, with a clear mind I can't get behind conspiracy theories. A conspiracy against any team would torpedo football. If there really was a conspiracy against one team and it came to light, by the time the lawsuits were over and the fans had walked away, what would be left? Certainly not the jobs of those involved. It would come to light too, nothing is private today. E-mails get hacked, phones get hacked, people talk. No way that it wouldn't come to light eventually.

In the heat of the moment though, it's pretty easy to get carried away. Earlier this year I watched a University of Miami/Duke game where I was screaming about the refs and was almost to the point of suspecting something funny. 23 penalties to 5. Three separate defensive pass interference calls on Duke's go ahead drive (one negating an INT). Finally, a go ahead TD called for Duke that looked at best 50/50 as to whether they crossed the goal line. I was screaming bloody murder--then the officials made about three mistakes on one play that allowed a miracle eight lateral kickoff return, picked up a flag on Miami, and upheld the whole thing on replay. Maybe the single worst officiated play I've ever seen--in Miami's favor. I was laughing at myself for considering something shady, but crying at the state of officiating overall.

I think the two most obvious cases Patriots fans have against the NFL right now are:

1) It's clear there's been emphasis placed on Rob Gronkowski putting his hands on defenders to "help" get separation. It's clear this point of emphasis has gone way overboard, to the point that the guy can't be physical at all while on the field or he's getting flagged for illegal contact. This is, at times, happening when he clearly doesn't even use his hands at all, such as what you saw last night. As someone mentioned, this is the NFL directly trying to neuter the Patriots' offense, thus intentionally skewing the integrity of the game despite their repeated claims that they work to protect the integrity of the game.

2) It's also clear there's been emphasis placed on the Patriots' "rub" routes. From what I recall, we've been called far more often for OPI than any other team on those routes, despite the Broncos, Packers, Colts, and Chargers all running the same exact kind of routes with far less (or, to this point, no) calls against them. Again, this is the NFL directly trying to neuter the Patriots' offense, thus intentionally skewing the integrity of the game despite their repeated claims that they work to protect the integrity of the game.

If people can't see the correlation between what's being called on the field by the officials and what the NFL is clearly placing emphasis on that's directly solely at the Patriots, I don't know what else to tell them.

No one wants to sound like a baby by blaming the officials for a loss. That's not what any of us like to do here; SoSH isn't that kind of forum. I think we're all in agreement on that. But you can only turn a blind eye to what's happening on field for so long before you're willfully ignoring the fact that your trust in the league to actually promote and manage fair play is completely being taken advantage of.

Obviously, I, nor anybody else, thinks there was a memo issued saying "DO NOT LET THE PATRIOTS WIN THE SUPER BOWL! DO NOT LET THEM GO 16-0!" That type of thing would leak in exactly .02 seconds. But if you don't think the officials are being pressured to watch and scrutinize the Patriots closer than any other team - for no reason outside of post-Deflategate butthurtness - you're not reading between the lines whatsoever.

16 games define a season. All it takes is a couple of game-changing fuckups by the officials to ruin a club's standing. Baseball players get to figure out an umpires strike zone during a game. Bad officiating in baseball works its way out over so many games. NFL players have no fucking idea what's going to be called, including from quarter to quarter, never mind game-to-game. The strategy for some is to test the officials and find out how much you can get away with since they can't call every foul (or non-foul).

Absolutely every play should be reviewable. Idiots in the broadcast booth see things all the time (and report in a matter of seconds), as do viewers. Why shouldn't officials headsets be tied into off-field adjudicators who can whisper in their ear (obviously a problem on continuation plays, which they fuck up anyway). In an totally fair world, there would be cameras isolating every critical player and a guy dedicated to monitor that in the booth, with an electric shock prod on the official's ass. In a real world, maybe all rules need to be adjusted to eliminate (where possible) any judgment calls, since so many judgments are inconsistent. I'm not up to speed on rules but, for example, could OPI be re-defined into something objective and easily reviewed (versus guessing, in the heat of a play, when a push is not a push)?

Something's very wrong when so much of a total season rides on the quality and integrity of so few men (and woman). I'm certain it's true for every team and no team is singled out.