The officiating in the NFL has been a lot of things over the years. But one thing many would not call it is “consistent.” Unless you’re Roger Goodell and publicly state recently that the league’s officiating has never been better, despite countless examples that would counter the commissioner’s claim.
The league’s Competition Committee recently met. And according to NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk, NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said that the highest priority of the meeting was discussing how the NFL can make certain that officiating is consistent across the league.
Consistency was an issue on the game’s biggest stage. Philadelphia Eagles cornerback James Bradberry was called for a holding penalty in the final minutes of Super Bowl LVII. The call, which wasn’t called consistently throughout the course of the big game, was pivotal to the result, which saw the Kansas City Chiefs lifting the Lombardi Trophy.
It appears that the league wants to prevent something like that from happening again, while also having all 17 officiating crews calling each game the same way. (And the same way compared to themselves; that particular Super Bowl LVII defensive hold was the first one referee Carl Cheffers’ crew had called in 577 consecutive snaps.) There are often discrepancies in how some games are called depending on the officiating crew, but the NFL appears to be emphasizing that it no longer wants that to be the case. The league clearly wants consistency from its officials across the board.
“Officiating was at the top,” of the Competition Committee’s agenda, Vincent said, via Pro Football Talk. “Crew consistency was the theme.”
Ultimately, we’ll have to wait until the 2023 regular season to see if the officials can hold up their end of the bargain.
