The NFL Should Focus On Officiating Not Los Angeles

Shane Denney

After being HNP (have not participated) the last few days, it has come to my attention that a lot has gone on and some interesting discussions have taken place. But, before we get into talking about the Washington Redskins, draft, playoffs, or one Funny Money Manziel, let’s have a little different discussion.

The NFL owners have been meeting in Dallas. The majority of news coming out so far has been about compensation picks and, of all things, Los Angeles. REALLY? Los-effing-Angeles — I couldn’t care less about L.A. at this point in time.

Want to discuss something? Talk about how completely and utterly disgusting your officials and rules have become. What is a catch? How does a guy sack the quarterback? How does a player actually stop the clock when attempting to get out of bounds?

Cowboys Blog - NFL Should Focus On Officiating Not Los Angeles 1
(Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)

I could.. go on forever, but I’ll stop.

Maybe I’m way off base and the meetings in Dallas weren’t meant for officiating. But if you’re going to change the rules regarding compensation picks, then you sure as hell have time to look at the rules of the game and the people officiating those said rules.

Dean Blandino and Roger Goodell have become a complete waste of oxygen. Their inabilities to hold themselves and the mistakes of others accountable have become a joke. Instead of admitting and owning up like a real man, it’s all about the cover up or the justification of one’s actions or lack of.

If the NFL wants to continue down this road of non-accountability and muddled mess, then so be it. Maybe we will get lucky and Vince McMahon will bring back the XFL so we can have something that resembles football.  Anyway, thanks for letting me rant.

4 thoughts on “The NFL Should Focus On Officiating Not Los Angeles”

  1. Couldn't agree more…I love my cowboys, and I love football. But the NFL and it's officials have all but ruined the game I've grown to love. I can no longer support a league that allows officials to control the outcome. Phantom calls, no one is allowed to breathe on the qbs anymore! And if they do u can be damn sure a flag will fly! Unclear rulings in catch/no catch situations? It's been disgusting… The NFL is in a sad state, Roger Goodell is a brainless puppet and it'll only get worse…for shame…

  2. The last two plays of the Packers/Lions game was a great example of the issue.

    1. The facemask penalty probably shouldn't have been called to start with. The facemask was not grasped. The tackler might have gotten a pinky on it but this was not what you expect to see called.
    2. The rule that a game cannot end on a defensive penalty is bogus. This rule should be amended to only certain penalties that impacted the final play. Things like defensive holding and pass interference should rightfully force another play. A questionable facemask call that, even if legitimate, had no impact on the final play should not give the offense another play.

    There are about a hundred TV cameras in every stadium during every game. It's high time we use them. Employ an officiating crew whose only job is to provide on-the-fly support or correction to flags that have been thrown on the field. NOT to prompt the officials for more flags, but to make sure the flags that are thrown by the officials on the field are legitimate calls.

  3. I partly think that the modern media and level of coverage has inflated our sense of how much worse officiating is now than in the past. There is still a decline, but maybe not as bad as we think.

    That said, the decline is clear and yet another blemish on Goodell's tenure.

  4. I agree with you Jess. I think it's a little bit of both. We have the media pointing it out more, and we have a convoluted rules system that makes plays much harder to officiate perhaps than it was 20 years ago.

    The catch rule is such an easy change, I'm not sure why they can't figure this out. The rule should designate a ball caught when:

    A) Player has control of the football
    B) Both feet touch the ground.
    C) If falling, the player must maintain control of the football until his knees/thigh/elbow touch the ground. At that point the player is DOWN.

    They have no problem with the idea that the ground can't cause a fumble. The ground should also not be able to cause an incomplete catch, either. Yeah, this would lead to a few more catches, but at least the rule would be easy to officiate and there's really not much subjectivity in the rule if it were written like that. The only subjectivity would be whether the player had control of the football and that's really not hard to determine.

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