The NFL has long needed full-time referees. Far too many blatant mistakes have altered the outcomes of important games due to incompetence (like this).
But perhaps a welcome change is on its way.
According to ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, the NFL’s Competition Committee is looking to hire full-time referees in time for the 2017 NFL season.
Obviously this won’t stop mistakes from impacting the games. As long as humans are in charge of enforcing rules that can be all too subjective at times, mistakes will inevitably be a part of the process.
However, by hiring full-time refs who will hopefully work as crews together throughout the season, the NFL should see a decline in the number of outrageous faux pas.
Another step that should be taken is that the crews that work best together during the regular season would be the ones taking on the big postseason contests. The practice of splitting up the teams to put together “All-Star crews” has severely impacted the quality of refereeing in the biggest games of the year for far too long.
Hopefully the committee will see to making that important change as well. For now, we can view this reported move to acquire full-time officials as a step in the right direction.