How Does The league Clean Up Poor Officiating

[Carl]

I don't know how to fix some issues, but something should be done.

Small bad calls here and there like a bad holding call or fumble that could have gone either way are understandable. Calls like the non-penalty on the Chargers and the Fail Mary are inexcusable though. Those are clear cut with no gray area. I suppose I could see a replacement official calling the Fail Mary a TD in real time, but with replay it's no question.

Anybody see a call last year against the Steelers vs. the Giants?

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The quality of the video isn't the best, but that is no question an incomplete pass, but was upheld as a fumble after review. That's terrible.

 

[GoPGo]

At some point, after probably just a few instances, the officials would probably rule this a palpably unfair act, and at their discretion take some sort of action, even if it was just to stop the game clock.

Agree. Call the PUA penalty, tack some time back on the clock and tell the offense if they don't get their **** together the ball will be awarded to the other team on the 40 yard line.

 

[Carl]

While we are on the subject of rules. Can someone tell me why they reset the play clock to 25 AND restart the game clock after an illegal procedure penalty on the offense (except in the last 5 minutes of the game, perhaps first half too).

Call me a schemer and yes, it would be as boring as the old 4 corner basketball stall, but couldn't a team with a comfortable lead, just keep taking illegal procedure penalties....eventually backing themselves up to the 1 inch line.....until 5 minutes are left on the clock?

Wonder if the fans would start booing? Even if it meant a victory.

oh and yes, I know why they do it.....speeds up games, but can't they see this loophole?

I remember the Badgers taking advantage of a loophole a few seasons ago on a kickoff. The scored a TD with less than a minute left in the half and them had everybody go offsides by 10-15 yards before kicking the ball. They stuffed the returner, the other team accepted the penalty, and the Badgers did it again. Or is was something similar to that. I just know for sure they were taking advantage of a loophole.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

I remember the Badgers taking advantage of a loophole a few seasons ago on a kickoff. The scored a TD with less than a minute left in the half and them had everybody go offsides by 10-15 yards before kicking the ball. They stuffed the returner, the other team accepted the penalty, and the Badgers did it again. Or is was something similar to that. I just know for sure they were taking advantage of a loophole.

I remember that game well and the brilliance behind what Bielema did. Yes, he took advantage of a loophole....article below:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2006-11-06-clock-loophole_x.htm

People saying that the refs would somehow change things during the scenario I am talking about make me laugh, you don't change the rules during the game. Simply put, restarting the game clock and resetting the play clock to 25 seconds on an illegal procedure is in the books and would have to be followed. Can someone get this loophole to McCarthy in case we are up by 15+ points at halftime?

 

[PackwillBEback]

That's not a very good analogy. Players, coaches, and GMs who regularly perform poorly at their jobs do indeed routinely lose them by being released or fired.

I assume then that you would agree that referees who establish a similar history of poor performance (I'm obviously not talking about 3 plays) should be held to the same standard and consequence.

And they are. Get poorly graded a couple years in a row and you are canned. If you follow officiating you would know there is a ton of turnover in the league every year. You don't see that at your white hats because those are year in and out your best officials. But you'll definitely see this at your deep flank and flank positions. Ever see an observer at the D-1 or pro levels....they are fair, but harsh. Officials are constantly graded.

 

[adambr2]

I remember that game well and the brilliance behind what Bielema did. Yes, he took advantage of a loophole....article below:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2006-11-06-clock-loophole_x.htm

People saying that the refs would somehow change things during the scenario I am talking about make me laugh, you don't change the rules during the game. Simply put, restarting the game clock and resetting the play clock to 25 seconds on an illegal procedure is in the books and would have to be followed. Can someone get this loophole to McCarthy in case we are up by 15+ points at halftime?

We make you laugh? Then you clearly have no familiarity with NFL rules.




Rule 17-2 - Extraordinarily Unfair Acts:
Article 1 - The Commissioner has the sole authority to investigate and take appropriate disciplinary and/or corrective measures if any club action, non-participant interference, or calamity occurs in an NFL game which he deems so extraordinarily unfair or outside the accepted tactics encountered in professional football that such action has a major effect on the result of the game.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl-clarifying-rules-trading-penalty-064900926--nfl.html

The situation harkens to 1989, when Ryan was the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and once put 14 players on the field at the end of a 10-9 victory over the Minnesota Vikings to cover a punt. Ryan, who crudely called the unit his "Polish punt team," figured the formation worked perfectly to prevent a blocked punt or big return. Even if a penalty was called, precious seconds were burned off the clock.

In 1989, the league fined Buddy Ryan and came up with a penalty known as the "palpably unfair act" to cover such egregious actions and others like it, such as a player coming off the sideline to make a tackle. Under the terms of a palpably unfair act, the officials have discretion over what the penalty can be, up to and including awarding a touchdown.
Or do something as simple as putting time back on the clock.

"You could have the ref do a lot of things," Cincinnati Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. "The situation is really already covered."


So, you still think you know it all? Think that the referees would just sit idly by and watch the entire second half tick away as we committed repeated illegal procedure penalties to burn the clock? You really want MM to risk massive fines, loss of draft picks, etc. to try to win the game by blatantly unfair means? Cool. You really think you're the first person to think of this "loophole"?

 

[adambr2]

Here's another one, straight from the NFL rulebook, page 100:

https://www.nfl.info/download/2012MediaGuides/2013 NFL Rule Book.pdf

Ball Dead Immediately
Committing acts designed to consume time…….................…4-7-1


So to sum it up again...no, this would not work. The officials would catch on pretty quickly and, if we were lucky, they would only put time back on the clock to go along with the penalty yardage we would have already incurred, instead of making us forfeit the game. We would likely lose at least one draft pick, probably a first day pick for trying to pull a stunt like this, MM would be fined heavily, and it would be a big embarrassment to him and the entire organization to be that team that tried to burn an entire half of a playoff game with illegal procedure penalties.

Maybe we should just try to play 60 minutes of good football instead.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

We make you laugh? Then you clearly have no familiarity with NFL rules.

So, you still think you know it all? Think that the referees would just sit idly by and watch the entire second half tick away as we committed repeated illegal procedure penalties to burn the clock? You really want MM to risk massive fines, loss of draft picks, etc. to try to win the game by blatantly unfair means? Cool. You really think you're the first person to think of this "loophole"?

Thanks for looking into it so thoroughly adambr2.

By the way.....where did I imply that "I know it all?" Look at my post, I was trying to find an answer to a question that I have posed to many people. Nobody seemed to have an answer, yet saw the unfairness. If you read the rules, it still is not as clear cut as you want to make it sound.

I still contest it is ridiculous that the game clock is started back up after the offense commits an illegal procedure. A team may not push the boundaries by taking one IP after another (which would take a judgement call by the refs to be "unsportsmanlike"), but they can still take precious time off the clock with false starts (planned or unplanned).

 

[adambr2]

Thanks for looking into it so thoroughly adambr2.

By the way.....where did I imply that "I know it all?" Look at my post, I was trying to find an answer to a question that I have posed to many people. Nobody seemed to have an answer, yet saw the unfairness. If you read the rules, it still is not as clear cut as you want to make it sound.

I still contest it is ridiculous that the game clock is started back up after the offense commits an illegal procedure. A team may not push the boundaries by taking one IP after another (which would take a judgement call by the refs to be "unsportsmanlike"), but they can still take precious time off the clock with false starts (planned or unplanned).

I did not mean to be confrontational, just felt you kind of brushed us off and acted like none of us knew what we were talking about in reference to the palpably unfair act when you said we "make you laugh".

I think there are a lot of issues with clock regulation in the NFL, both at the officiating level, coaching level, etc. Home clock operators often click an extra second or two off after a play late in a game. This can matter. I shake my head every time a coach needing to get the ball back waits until the 2 minute warning and THEN calls his last timeout at 1:54, rather than calling it before the 2 minute warning and getting the stop with the same down and distance at 2:00.

But there are controls in place to keep a coach from attempting to exploit a loophole in the rules, clock or otherwise, and most of this is subject to the discretion of officials. Whether the rules are good rules or not.

 

[NOMOFO]

The NFL says it doesn't want to expand replay because the game is already slowed down too much. I'd like to know how many people are really complaining about replay slowing down the game? I tend to think most true NFL fans would much rather the correct call be made, rather than worry about adding 5 minutes to the game! I find it absolutely amazing that games like the fail mary game can actually end without correcting the call. That's just amazing to me. I would be all for expanding replay and doing it like somebody suggested in this thread. Have officials upstairs in the headsets of guys on the field the entire game. They could correct tons of BS calls during the game. How about the Bears game where 2 times Bears drilled our players, we retaliate and we got the flag! The cameras showed us getting drilled! Why not get those types of things right?

 

[HyponGrey]

The league, IMHO, should hire full time officials that work on their game year around.
They should hire younger officials that can keep up with the speed of the game.
Just off the top of my head.

Triplette is the league's only full time official. He's also consistently their worst. That should say something.

How about simplifying the over-convoluted rules so you don't have to use 70 year old lawyers to make the call?

 

[melvin dangerr]

I did not mean to be confrontational, just felt you kind of brushed us off and acted like none of us knew what we were talking about in reference to the palpably unfair act when you said we "make you laugh".

I think there are a lot of issues with clock regulation in the NFL, both at the officiating level, coaching level, etc. Home clock operators often click an extra second or two off after a play late in a game. This can matter. I shake my head every time a coach needing to get the ball back waits until the 2 minute warning and THEN calls his last timeout at 1:54, rather than calling it before the 2 minute warning and getting the stop with the same down and distance at 2:00.

But there are controls in place to keep a coach from attempting to exploit a loophole in the rules, clock or otherwise, and most of this is subject to the discretion of officials. Whether the rules are good rules or not.

Why apologize, this is a discussion forum keep going learning from other posters…...

 

[yooperpackfan]

Triplette is the league's only full time official. He's also consistently their worst. That should say something.

How about simplifying the over-convoluted rules so you don't have to use 70 year old lawyers to make the call?

One official is a pretty small sample to use as an argument against hiring full time officials.
I do agree with the simplification of rules theory but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
The NFL is run by a bunch of lawyers who are addicted to convoluted language and rule changes.

Just out of curiosity, if Triplette is consistently the worst (perhaps he is, I don't know), why is he still employed?

 

[robertk328]

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[yooperpackfan]

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So that's Triplette huh.

 

[HyponGrey]

One official is a pretty small sample to use as an argument against hiring full time officials.
I do agree with the simplification of rules theory but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
The NFL is run by a bunch of lawyers who are addicted to convoluted language and rule changes.

Just out of curiosity, if Triplette is consistently the worst (perhaps he is, I don't know), why is he still employed?

Because there wasn't really anyone to replace him with, and he's the only one willing to go full time.

 

[adambr2]

To put it simply, there is talk of the Steelers losing draft picks for Tomlin stepping out on the field during a play.

So I can only imagine what the NFL would do to the Packers for trying to manipulate the clock to burn an entire half of a playoff game.

 

[yooperpackfan]

Because there wasn't really anyone to replace him with, and he's the only one willing to go full time.

Seriously?
That's pretty messed up!

 

[PackFanNChiTown]

In regard to the controversial 4th and 1 call with Kuhn in the Packers/Bears game, I just uploaded a video that proves there was no penalty in case anyone is interested:

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[Shawnsta3]

I guess to fix the bad officiating, they just decided to call no penalties like pass interference today?