Before NFL games can be played in Las Vegas, the league might want to tweak one significant issue revolving around its rules officials.
As passed along by Football Zebras, the league currently has significant rules in place to ensure its referees aren’t even giving the hint of the impression of any funny business going on. Among them includes an absolute ban on any official visiting the city of Las Vegas during the season.
The longstanding rule that officials must not set foot in Las Vegas during the season obviously needs to be modifiedhttps://t.co/a86fK1ufl4
— Fᴏᴏᴛʙᴀʟʟ Zᴇʙʀᴀs🇺🇦 (@footballzebras) March 27, 2017
“In author Richard Lister’s book, The Third Team, many current and former officials tell of the very strict rules they must follow to not even have a hint of an association with gambling,” wrote Mark Schultz of Football Zebras. “NFL officials are not allowed to step foot into Las Vegas or Atlantic City during the NFL season. In the offseason the officials must notify the league within 24 hours of having frequented a casino. Officials are forbidden from betting on all team sports. Each official is given a list of bars and other establishments in each NFL city where there is known gambling activity, legal or otherwise, and that official is forbidden from patronizing that establishment. The NFL employs people to monitor those establishments during the season to make sure the officials comply with the rules.”
Schultz goes on to speculate that NFL officials will likely need to be sequestered during the weekends in which they officiate games in Las Vegas, concluding by writing, “the officiating office will need strict policies and protocols to keep the officials above reproach.”
This is definitely one of the issues the league must deal with before the Oakland Raiders make their move to Las Vegas, presumably for the 2018 or 2019 season. That said, there are many positives coming out of the league’s vote to approve the move, which we covered in some detail here.