White Plains CitizeNetReporter - <i>From the Upper Deck:</i>The National Fools League: Amateur Officials a Joke

WPCNR PRESS BOX. By Howard Rosell, "Telling It Like It Is" (John F. Bailey) First of a Series. January 8, 2003: In the First Great New York Crisis of 2003 -- the New York Giants-San Francisco Farce Sunday (which had WFAN'S Steve Sommers opening the New York Knicks Suicide Hotline Monday evening to Giants fans, that vast allegiance to the amateur operation that is the National Football League has to be examined with a critical eye to reform.

VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK: Before the national budget, before the New York State Budget is resolved, before the Westchester County Budget is resolved we must fix the NFL. Put Iraq on hold. Put North Korea on hold. This reporter feels President Bush, Governor Pataki, and yes, Adam Bradley and Amy Paulin have to make NFL reform their number one priority. It matters to America.
Photo of Comisky Park by WPCNR Sports

First, the officiating. The last 6 seconds of the Giant game showed a consistent flaw in the NFL: amateur officiating. The NFL a megabuck property refuses to hire and train full-time, year round officials. The only answer is, they are too cheap.

They need professionals! Why pay officials all year round when you only play less than 300 games a year? Is it no wonder that so many controversial non-calls and flagrantly bad calls of inconsistent value-judgments are made when the official is doing it as a hobby?

And when do those bad calls occur: on big plays, of course! And why are they usually made then: because the official is old, slow, out of position and tired at the end of the game, and simply because they are not going at it with a professional’s mindset. They will tell you they are, but they can’t.

Reliance on instant reply as an answer is a joke, because television is not a three-dimensional medium, and slow motion distorts. Baseball knows that. And even on instant reply the major league umps are rarely wrong. Admittedly some are out of position on calls, but not often. There’s a reason for that, too. Umps in basketball, baseball and hockey are trained, they’re full-time. They know the players they will be officiating, they know what to look for. They know Greg Maddox's curveball. They know Michael Jordan's stride. NFL officials act as if they are honored to be on the field with these guys.

When is the NFL going to wake up and smell the beer: they need younger, faster officials who can go the distance, and keep up with the faster athletes they are officiating. And, please, let’s know the rules and not be so amateurish that we forget them in the pressure of the moment as the Keystone Kops officials of Sunday’s Giant Meltdown did.

Baseball, the NBA and the NHL all have paid fulltime officials down through the minor league levels, even. There’s a reason for that. In baseball you rarely have umpires blow a call that costs teams games in big spots. It has happened, but it’s rare. (Ken Burkhart's call in 1970 at the plate, and the Yankee homer against the Orioles...just two I can recall in 50 years of fandom. However, in the NFL you have a gaff a game.

The reason: the umps live breath and concentrate, as professionals should. They are not just picking up a check, taking time off from the boardroom, the country club, or the college as a number of NFL officials appear to be from.

In fact, there is a mystery about how you get to be an NFL official. Are you an “old boy,” a crony, a person connected with football clubs? Do they have to like the way you flutter your flag? Are you scouted? I have rarely seen a great deal written on how the NFL selects its officials. But they stink, consistently.

In fact, the NFL in the interest of integrity should bring the 49-ers and Giants back to do that last play over, just as major league baseball did in 1908, during the Merkle’s Boner play, which cost another Giant team a pennant.

The NFL is always talking about integrity. Well, here is a chance to prove that dedication to integrity.

And, you know what, if they did bring the teams back, the Giants would miss that kick too!

If the NFL really cared about officiating, officials would be allowed to observe practices, familiarize themselves with team films ( I do not believe they do that), and prepare for games just as the teams do. But, because they are not full-time officials, I do not think they do. They do not have the time off from their dayjob.

If you know Jeremy Shockey showboats they can at the beginning of the game inform offenders that something will be called. NFL officials are consistently unprepared it seems to this observer to be in position to make calls, to deal with player behavior and technique on the field, which accounts for a great deal of playcalling inconsistency.

This column in no way criticises amateur officials on local fields, in softball or kids or high school leagues. These fellows and gals try their best and are not paid a lot.

I believe the NFL amateur officials try, but they simply are not in the position or prepared enough to do a great job. And that is obvious by their performances in playoff games where supposedly we see only the best NFL officials assigned, and they still screw up.


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