NFL Officiating

In Super Bowl 40 Mike Holgrem, the coach of the Seattle Seahawks made the observations that he hadn’t realized that the Seahawks were playing both the Steelers and the officials. He was right. The game had at least four highly questionable calls that potentially helped change the outcome of the game. Repeatedly we see that there are dubious calls that completely change the game and most probably the outcome.

In the Bears against the Broncos the Broncos and the Bears were on the receiving end of some amazingly bad calls. Grossman fumbled and a defensive player picked up the ball and ran it for what would have been a touchdown. It was blown dead but the Broncos challenged the call and the play was reversed and it was called a fumble. But two problems hung on this. If it had been blown dead, why was the call reversed? A whistle ends the play. Period. Except here. But, maybe worse, if it was a fumble and Denver recovered why weren’t they given the touchdown? The answer was that the play had been called dead so they couldn’t advance the ball. Later on a phantom defensive holding penalty or pass interference call was made against Denver, keeping the Bears’ drive alive and helped them win the game. Helped. The Bears did drive down the field, and they did drive down the field on overtime to beat the Broncos, so no one can say that the officials totally gave the game to the Bears.

The Bears-Giants game. Grossman, who was struggling to get away, is tackled in the end zone. It was clearly not a forward progress kind of deal. Safety. Except the officials called forward progress and the Giants don’t get the two points. It’s dubious, however, who benefitted from this call. The Bears were forced to kick out of the back of their endzone, a tough kick, it was partially blocked and the Giants got the ball on the 30 yard line. Their offense had been pitiful, but they were able to go the 30 yards and score a touchdown.

But, and replays showed this, as the balled was snapped, the Bears’ coach decided to challenge the previous play. The red flag was in the air and the ball was in motion. It was too late for a challenge. The Giants scored a touchdown, but the officials decided to accept the challenge, despite its lateness, and the touchdown was taken off the board. The challenge was not upheld. The Giants later did score on third down. I suspect that the Giants benefitted from this, however. All the extra plays burned a lot of clock time and the Bears needed more time at the end of the game. Toomer’s catch at the end of the game was a catch that sometimes is ruled a catch and sometimes ruled a trap. Officials are incredibly inconsistent with that call.

Pass interference, illegal contact, defensive holding, and even offensive holding, are called all the time and sometimes the calls are phantom. Quite often we see a player fall down and another player is near them and is called for a penalty. Replays often show that the first player slipped and the other player had nothing to do with the slip. But a penalty was called. It can’t be reserved because replay cannot be used for this.

Furthermore, these calls are often subjective and often inconsistent. I strongly suspect that NFL players do what they do because they have to test out what they can and cannot get away with. Personally, I think that the rules are tilted to allow more completions and make the game more offensively exciting. Defensive football, which, to me, is a treat to watch, is pushed aside for more points. But this is usually at the whim of the officials.

Baltimore Ravens players made the charge that they believe that the NFL encourages the officials to lean towards one team. It sure does seem that way. Something to note, however, is that the Ravens objections to the calls were bogus. The officials actually did get them right in that game...

The Ravens love to trash talk. It’s more effective to play well than it is to talk a lot.

Are the officials biased? I’d like to believe that they are not. I do know this, however, two years ago many, many games had outcomes very much impacted by the officiating. Last year it seemed better. This year is looking more and more like two years ago.