NFL Rules and Officiating Thread

[Mr.TaterSalad]

Long before Sunday nights officiating debacle and the Lions getting a TD called back and 6 points taken off the board, the NFL has had a problem with its rules and officiating. From convoluted rules that make no sense to anyone on Planet Earth to rules that aren't correctly enforced to referees using poor judgement, the NFL has had a problem with the consistency of its rulebook and with the referees on the field meant to judge enforce those rules and call the game. 

Far too often, our Detroit Lions have been the victim of NFL officiating, convoluted rules, and bad calls being made by the officiating crew. Sunday night's call of illegal motion against Jared Goff occurred a full 1:07 after the TD signaled on the field and after the officials had already huddled once, determined there was no penalty, and then spotted the ball for the PAT. Only after they were buzzed down from upstairs/New York, which to my knowledge I didn't think an illegal motion call could be reviewed from upstairs or called in from New York, was a flag thrown. This officiating blunder and errant rule enforcement was one in along line of bad judgement by the referees, questionable calls, and enforcement of rules you have never heard of before that specifically went against our Lions.

So with that, I wanted to make a thread about the NFL rulebook and NFL officiating. I am hoping to kickstart more conversation about the rules, the officiating, what needs to change, how things need to be reformed, etc.

I'm going to start. I think the NFL needs a ref clock, much like a play clock the players have to abide by. The referees need to have a certain amount of time to make a call and throw a flag if they miss it in real time. The refs have 30 seconds, from the time the play was blown dead, to make a decision to throw a flag. For there to be over a full minute of time gone by before they decided to throw the flag is absolutely ridiculous and should not have happened.

 

[gehringer_2]

Also  - with  Campbell there is going to be a basic conflict between his creativity and the officials being predisposed to not liking and looking to flag anything they haven't seen before or that they have to think about.

[Dan Gilmore]

[RedRamage]

What I would love to see is that whole rule book re-evaluated. The rule book is based, of course, on a game that's more than 100 years old and I'm quite certain that many of the rules are based what made sense back in the 1920 game. They've of course been amended and updated and changed, but I suspect that many existing rules are based on the core ideas of the game back then.

Take the whole book and have some people sit down and go through it rule by rule: What is the purpose of this rule? What is it trying to accomplish? Is it to define the basic game? Is it to make the game more entertaining for the audience? Is it for player safety?

Get to the bottom of the intent of the rule of the rule first, and then ask: Does it make sense in today's game? I suspect MOST of them will still apply, but I'm also sure that there will be at least some that do not.

For each rule that still applies, ask: Should it be modified given how the game exists now and what we know about player safety, to achieve it's purpose better?

For each rules that doesn't still fit with today's game, ask: Does the intent of the rule (make the game safer, more entertaining, better defined/understood) still make sense? Is so, how do we update the rule to make it fit the original intent?

Examples:

10 second run off of the clock if officials call on the field stopped the clock, but review overturns the call and the clock should have been running. This is obviously what happened to the Lions in the Falcons game a few years back.

• What's the intent of the rule? To prevent granting an extra "time out" for a team trying to score before the clock runs out. The defense shouldn't get penalized if they did the right thing (for example, tackled a player in bounds) and the refs made the wrong call (said the ball carrier got over the sideline).
• Does it still apply in today's game? Yes, probably.
• Should it be modified for today's game? Yes, probably: Given that teams are drilled on quickly getting set and ready for the next play, they likely can get in place and run a play in less than 10 second, depending somewhat of where the ball is spotted vs. the original line of scrimmage.
• Suggested modification: Knock it down to 5 second run off or possibly make it dependent on how far away from the original line of scrimmage the ball is spotted. (For example, >20 yards = 10 second run off, =<20 yards = 5 second run off.

[Jason_R]

National Football Litigators. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

 

The call came from upstairs. We all know it, everyone watching that game knows it, both organizations know it. Everyone but the league is willing to admit that the illegal motion call came from upstairs. The league needs to admit to it.