Latest rumor is that NFL will go with one-man officiating crew to spot ball
 

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Latest rumor is that NFL will go with one-man officiating crew to spot ball and do everything else from the booth http://wp.me/p14QSB-4DkL



Rumors fly that league may go with one-man officiating crews
Posted by Mike Florio on August 20, 2012, 2:22 PM EDT
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The good news is that the replacement officials could soon be getting fired. The bad news is that the locked-out officials may stay locked out.

The in-between news is that the NFL may use only one official on the field to spot the ball and walk off penalties, with the rest of the officiating being performed in the booth by league employees watching TV monitors.

That’s the current rumor making the rounds on the league’s grapevine.

It’s just a rumor. But don’t expect anyone from the league to admit that there may be any truth to it. After all, the league office has been telling owners and coaches what they can and can’t say about the situation. Surely, no one will say that the NFL is considering such drastic action until the NFL decides to do it.

Given the performance of the replacement officials, it makes plenty of sense to consider drastic action.

From our perspective, we’ve got no problem with it. Technology has advanced to the point where the game can be called from a place other than the field.

Heck, if it works I’d be in favor of firing all officials and using the eye-in-the-sky system permanently.

See, I really don’t care who “wins” or “loses” this labor battle between the NFL and highly-paid part-time employees. I care, however, about the game. And the current situation compromises the game.

If the solution to the current situation can help the league get every call right, then maybe it’s time to get rid of every official except the guy who’d be acting like a glorified ball boy.

I am surpised this hasn't happened sooner.

Unlike baseball, which is declining, the NFL is very forward-thinking.

Mike Florio, glorified puppet for Big Red to help break the labor strike.

That's going to work really well when a few of these guys decide it's time to get in a shoving match after the whistle.

Pfft. Yeah, sure.

Terrible idea. You can't possibly see everything going on down there from a freaking booth. And it would probably slow the game down too.

Who would break up fights? They'd have to hire bouncers.


Sounds like the perfect job for The Hulkster and The Macho Man, brother!

Booth officials would be a little easier to control............

There'd be holding penalties on every play.

It's such a brilliant idea that it just might not absolutely maybe wont possibly could probably should never even come close too or try this to see if it works.

Yeah, a dozen HD cameras sucks compared to guys on the field whose view of the play is obstructed by a bunch of 300 pound linemen.

:stupid:

They should have done this YEARS AGO.

Sorry but these football players would kick your ass, anyway aren't you drawing social security ?

huh?

I want to see the fancy yellow flag launching system. Mayme smartbomb technology to place a flag launched from the top of the media booth to where a penalty occurs?

It be kind of like going to the self check out lane only to have troubles with the automated machine and have to call over a real person to fix the problem.

They can't get challenges right after more than a minute to look at them. You think they'll be getting all the penalties right after a second or two?

Sounds like a perfect way to control outcomes of games.

LMAO

It makes a person wonder, doesn't it?

I assume the guys in the booth won't have to view one feed at a time like the official using the replay machine. Who was obviously requesting feeds, one at a time, from people in the booth who were viewing multiple feeds.

The TV guys can do it nearly instantly. Do you have any reason to doubt that booth officials don't have access to the same technology?

That's why the one official will be armed.

My favorite is when they take 15 minutes come out and still get the call wrong.

I have reason to doubt that booth officials can find their asses with their own two hands.

This seems like a moot point, though, given the latest:

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...een-discussed/

Not going to happen.

Figured it was too good to be true. ****ing morons. :shake:

We have people with instance access to numerous large monitors showing every play in crystal clarity from every angle. But rather than make the final decision up here and relay it to the field, we'll send feed down, one monitor at a time, to a guy standing in the elements getting screamed at by thousands of people, watching through a glorified Viewmaster.

Yeah, that's just ****ing brilliant. :whackit:

You obviously don't realize that I'm late 80's early 90's Hulk Hogan.

the t shirt cannon will be fired from the upper decks
brilliant

The players would get away with murder. In a time when the commissioner preaches nothing but safety, this makes no sense what so ever.

no way they'd ever have cameras in the right positions to see everything an official sees on the field.

Not sure if serious. You do realize they have cameras on the field right? They aren't looking out of a window...

How are they going to call "unabated to the QB" before the QB gets killed?

but they don't have 5 cameras in the exact spots as an officials eyes that are running up and down the field with the action.

There is no way they will be able to see things like holding as well.

I can easily see them on TV.... WTF are you talking about?

:facepalm:

God I would love this.

If this were to pass (or even if it doesn't), I'd hope the first thing to go the way of the Dodo would be the first down chain "technology". Gotta be about 38 better ways to determine the first down.

ok, that may be the dumbest thing I read in a long time.

This seems pretty out there, even for PFT. I don't deny that it's entirely possible that you could make such a setup work, but there's no way in hell they'd roll it out all haphazardly two weeks before the start of the season. Decisions like that take YEARS of planning to make it happen.

In other words, there's no way this happens. Like, at all.

This has to be the dumbest idea ever. Gonna kill any fast pace element to the game. They are going to have to temporarily stop the game after every play to review it and relay information to the chicken with no head on the field.

Keep reading. It might get dumber.

You don't think there's a better way to do it, in this day and age? Laser lines, GPS, etc... Hell, MLB (backwards MLB!) is testing systems somewhat like what is used in tennis, to potentially make accurate fair/foul calls.

I just think the NFL should be a technology leader. And a guy setting down a spike with a chain attached to it, pretty close to where he thinks the ball is, from halfway across the field, ain't it.

I think the thing that would make it more difficult than it seems is that the ball is spotted at the point where the player is down, not the place where it ends up at the point everyone stops moving. Those two are one and the same in a lot of cases, but there are plenty of times where the player keeps moving forward well after he's down. You'd have to find some automatic way of telling when a player is down, and there are so many body parts that could cause that, it'd be tough to make work.

Well, that's true, but I'm not even thinking about the spotting of the ball. Determining when a guy is down and where the ball is at that time is still best performed by humans, with judgement.

It's at that point where I think moving the ball around and setting the chains can get a little inaccurate, and where some kind of tech can "see" exactly where the ball is before it's handled, and therefore can set that line ten yards away accurately, without people dragging those chains around. Eh, maybe it's irrelevant after all.

Dumbest shit ever.



NFL, a billion dollar corp, needs to break down and put the best officials on the field. If they are gonna preach all this safety, get the best out there.

The issue is that they're sacrificing short-term quality in hopes of improving things long-term. As I understand it, there are three main sticking points:

• The NFL wants refs (or at least some of them) to work full-time. Most of them have other jobs aside from the NFL currently. Presumably, having them work full time would improve the quality of their performance.
• The NFL wants to expand the number of crews so that they can have backup crews. This would allow them to 1) have a bigger pool of officials who can be groomed and promoted and 2) give some crews weeks off from time to time.
• The NFL wants to be able to essentially sit refs for performance, so (related to the one above), they could basically bench guys who suck.

I could have misunderstood some of that, but the way it sounds, I don't see how we, as fans, can argue against the NFL.

Which leads me to a huge nitpick I have.
When they first put in the QB slide rule, part of the rule was, the ball was spotted at the point the QB BEGAN his slide. They seem to have gotten to the point, the past few years, where they spot the ball at the end of the slide, which more often than not, is the difference between a first down, or not.