The NFL has a "serious issue of a problem of public confidence" in its on-field product as there have been "so many mistakes" this season with officiating, and it is something the league needs to "get a handle on," according to ESPN's Dan Graziano. The latest high-profile issue with refs came in Monday's Bills-Seahawks game, and Graziano said, "We're watching this great game, and because of everything that's going on with officiating this year, everyone is waiting for the officiating mistake." Graziano: "That's no way for the NFL to exist" ("NFL Insiders," ESPN, 11/8). ESPN's Jemele Hill noted the NFL is looking at the "perception of officiating incompetence, and when you have that, that makes people lose faith in the game." She called Monday a "gross example of what we have seen from NFL officials" this season. Hill: "Maybe this is ... the reason why NFL ratings are down across the board, because you have players who are in a much better position to know the rules than the actual officials” ("His & Hers," ESPN2, 11/8). ESPN's Tony Kornheiser: "This happens too often: Game-changing calls that are admittedly wrong, either in the game or after the game” (“PTI,” ESPN, 11/8). ESPN’s Field Yates called Monday an "embarrassing night" and said the people who are "paid to investigate the ways to make officiating better need to be diligent in that task." Yates: "This is a billion-dollar corporation with an incredibly large fan base that expects and deserves better” (“NFL Insiders,” ESPN, 11/8). In Rochester, Sal Maiorana notes the refs "marred everything" about the game. The NFL "can’t help itself" and "nothing is going to change until this league takes its law book-sized rulebook and burns it and starts from scratch." Maiorana: "The officiating is often brutal, but part of the problem is that there are so many ludicrous rules and situations that they have to know" (ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE, 11/9).
CALLS FOR FULL-TIME REFS GROW LOUDER: Monday's game reignited the call for full-time refs, with CBS Sports Net's Adam Schein saying the NFL needs to make officials "full-time employees and get better refs." The NFL is a "billion-dollar business," and Bills-Seahawks "was an embarrassment" ("Time To Schein," CBSSN, 11/8). THE MMQB's Peter King notes the NFL "seriously has considered making the 17 referees, the chiefs of its officiating crews, full-time officials." However, approval by the officials’ union is "needed, and that was a fight that went unsolved" in the last negotiations in '12. But it is not a "certainty that officiating would improve" if refs went full-time. The league would "lose some quality officials if you asked them to choose between the officiating job and their other jobs." During the last negotiations, the NFL Referees Association "rightfully wanted some assurances about job security if it was going to sign off on full-time officials" (MMQB.SI.com, 11/9). ESPN’s Andrew Brandt said calls for full-time refs have been around "for a long time,” but there is "no full-time official sentiment going on on either side right now” (“OTL,” ESPN, 11/8). CBS’ Phil Simms said, "I'll argue all day that full-time officials don’t make sense. ... What is it going to do for us? They know the rules. We're talking about judgement calls almost on everything in the NFL” ("Inside The NFL," Showtime, 11/8).
NO MORE EXCUSES: USA TODAY's Nancy Armour writes under the header, "Election No Longer Can Be Excuse For Ratings Woes." The NFL has been able to "brush off its plunging TV ratings and viewership on the presidential election." The "bad officiating, the heavy-handed penalties, the sloth-like pace of games, the matchups that were bland, bad or both, we've seen for several years now." All of it "could be ignored so long as prime-time games were going up against the debates and the non-stop drama of the election made it almost impossible to focus on anything else." However, that "excuse is now gone." If NFL TV numbers "continue their season-long slide, the league will have to acknowledge it has a serious problem: After years of overlooking controversies off the field and sloppiness on it, fans are no longer willing to blindly accept a substandard product" (USA TODAY, 11/9).
