It’s never a good thing when two of the most important games in your lucrative postseason are dominated by loud and frequent complaints about the officiating.
Fans and media alike who watched with intense interest the NFC and AFC conference title games saw the Philadelphia Eagles trounce the San Francisco 49ers, and the Kansas City Chiefs edge the Cincinnati Bengals. But the postgame talk wasn’t about the Super Bowl LVII match up, but rather how much the folks in the striped shirts shaped the outcome, especially in the KC – Cincy game.
Calls, non-calls, inconsistency with calls. The critiques came from all over, regardless of rooting interest, and they were not kind. Sadly, it’s a common theme now in almost every college and professional football game you can watch.
And we can watch. A lot.
The NFL brass have done everything they can possibly do to bring more games to more viewers – live in stadiums and on television. That’s made them more money, but it’s also brought that plethora of super slo-mo scrutiny. Replays beam onto jumbotrons and into homes all over the country, and given the millions of arm-chair refs the ability to see every missed call in high definition close ups over and over and over.
It’s made NFL officiating, which, in all honesty is as high quality as it’s ever been, look terrible at times. Important times.
Major League Baseball has endured much of the same type of criticism, especially when it comes to balls and strikes called by the home plate umpires. The criticism has led to MLB beginning experiment with an electronic strike zone, something many close followers of the game predict will be implemented in the big leagues within the decade.
Robo Umps are on the way.
Could Robo Refs be far behind?
Think about it.
Artificial intelligence, or AI as it’s called, makes this a real live possibility. There are already dozens of camera angles available to the “eye in the sky” folks back at league HQ.
What’s preventing the league from peering that direction? If they can find a way to do it without completely destroying the flow of games, they probably will.
As things stand, the NFL has been flat out cheap in regards to its game officials. They’ve steadfastly refused to make referees full time paid employees, instead making those who call their games – the cream of the officiating crop as it were – work weekdays as insurance agents and schoolteachers in order to make a living. Are there any other of league’s most important tasks that are left in the hands of part timers?
Unlikely.
Sadly, that’s probably never going to change.
If officials aren’t full time employees by now, with the NFL raking in obscene amounts of money, they never will be. And that will prevent the best in the business from getting even better, which is what NFL fandom is demanding.
So it only makes sense (or make that dollars and cents) for the league to look at something that could conceivably save them even more money on employees, right? Robo refs – once they’re fully paid for and in place – will cost the league a lot less (maintenance and upkeep only) and save them a bundle on health insurance to boot.
Most of all, it will render the armchair referees obsolete. That will be a big win for the everyone.
Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkKnudson41
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