The National Football League is not known for good officiating. If anything, people know the NFL as a league with bad officiating.
Well, at least the league is trying to get better at it.
As of now, the NFL doesn’t have any 100% full-time officials. Some of the refs moonlight as college basketball refs during the offseason as well. That is going to change, as the Associated Press is reporting the NFL is expected to hire as many as 17 full-time officials this offseason.
Troy Vincent is the league’s Vice President of Football Operations and told the AP the news. He also added the addition of 17 full-time officials is allowed under the NFL’s current collective bargaining agreement, which would also increase the size of officiating crews from seven currently to eight.
The NFL’s current CBA has a clause in it that allowed the league to hire no more than 17 officials as full-time as of the 2013 season.
“This is a topic of discussion daily,” he told the AP.
Vincent said full-time officials would allow the league to focus more on training and consultation on a year-round basis. Before making this big move however, the NFL is speaking to coaches, general managers, and owners for input.
Along with hiring full-time officials, there are talks to expand replay reviews as well. These will all be discussed further when the NFL’s competition committee meets in February after the Super Bowl.
One big thing that needs to be decided is where the eighth official would stand. One idea is a middle sideline judge that would look for defensive line penalties. Another option is having the officials monitor hits on the quarterback. Luckily for the NFL, college football’s top conference already bumped their crews up to eight officials so they can look to them for guidance.
Vincent also pointed out to the AP the current officials have an accuracy rate of more than 97%. However, many fans would disagree because the missed calls are blown up on Twitter and other forms of social media.
[ESPN]
