The NFL has an obvious way to quiet the officiating drama more than with a placating public stance from commissioner Roger Goodell
Officiating is a hot button issue in the NFL right now, and especially for Bills fans. Whether you agree with the sentiments or not, there is a prevailing voice among football fans that is shouting loudly about how Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs continuously seem to get the benefit of every marginal call […]
Officiating is a hot button issue in the NFL right now, and especially for Bills fans. Whether you agree with the sentiments or not, there is a prevailing voice among football fans that is shouting loudly about how Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs continuously seem to get the benefit of every marginal call in their games.
Unsurprisingly, there have been plenty of questions this week aimed at commissioner Roger Goodell about officiating, which he attempted to answer very directly.
Goodell is of the clear stance that it's "a ridiculous theory" for anyone that might believe the theory that the officiating is rigged in favor of the Kansas City Chiefs. "I think it's a reminder for us of how important officiating is," Goodell continued. "At the end of the day, it's something we have to continue to work on: how do we make our officiating better?"
Obviously that was going to be Goodell's response. The commissioner of the NFL isn't going to come out and say "thanks for asking, you're absolutely right. I've instructed the officiating crews to call every marginal play in favor of the Chiefs because the rating are through the roof when they play and a team going for a three-peat and Taylor Swift, the biggest pop star on earth, is dating one of their star players and will be in attendance at the Super Bowl."
Whether or not it's truly a conspiracy to aid the Chiefs, there have been so many calls that were questionable at best, and plain wrong at worst, that it'd led to the point that we're all having these conversations.
When I say "we're all having these conversations," I mean it. The scope of the topic has been wildly robust all season, but especially in light of the AFC Championship Game. Reporters have spent this week asked players about it, Goodell is having to spend his time defending the actions of league officials, talk shows have commented on the officiating, and the social media hum has risen to a roar ever since Josh Allen was called short on that fourth down run. It has been the biggest topic of conversation, which clearly points at the public perception being that the league needs to do a better job officiating.
The NFL Referee Association released a statement regarding Goodell's comments, doubling down on what he had to say.
"Commissioner Goodell's comments that it is 'ridiculous' to presume that NFL Officials are not doing everything possible to make the right call on every play is spot on," said Scott Green, Executive Director of the NFLRA. "Officiating crews do not work the same team more than twice each regular season. It is insulting and preposterous to hear conspiracy theories that somehow 17 officiating crews consisting of 138 officials are colluding to assist one team."
The statement continued: "NFL Officials are graded every week, on every single play of each game. These grades are the determining factor as to who receives postseason assignments. The NFLRA comments its members, who all strive to do exactly what all 32 NFL Teams do, which is to excel at their jobs so that they are working the last game of the season – the Super Bowl."
"There are many things that fans can worry about over a 17-game season, such as coaching decisions, player injuries, the weather and, yes, even close calls on incredible plays made by incredible athletes," Green said. "But you can rest assured that on every single down, NFL Officials, both on the field and in the replay booth, are doing everything humanly possible to officiate every play correctly."
A conspiracy theory is just a theory. But if the referees are not intentionally calling things in favor of the Chiefs, like the should-have-been incomplete pass to Xavier Worthy and the numerous plays by the Bills that were spotted more than a full yard short of where they should have been in the AFC Championship Game, including the third down play before Josh Allen's controversial quarterback sneak that Gene Steratore disagreed with the spot of, then it means that they were simply doing a very bad job at their profession, and it impacted the game.
There are numerous takeaways. Firstly, how in the year of 2025 are we still using judgment to spot the ball and archaic chains to measure the spot when technology has come so far, and other professional sports have automated systems that measure exactly where a ball lands? Just fixing that would take so much room for judgment out of the question. Secondly, if the refs are continuing to make bad calls week after week, both seemingly in favor of the Chiefs and in other games around the league to the point that the eye surgery company Lasik has made it a running joke on social media that they would give free laser eye surgery to NFL referees, then maybe the training and the procedures in place need a dramatic overhaul.
Automate more. By not utilizing the technology that is available, the league is continuing to leave themselves open to a high level of scrutiny and conspiracy theories based on officiating in football being far more subjective than it needs to be.
When Steratore, a former NFL official that now acts as a consultant during CBS football coverage, is commenting live in the fourth quarter of the AFC Championship Game that he believes the referees on the field got it wrong, that is simply unacceptable. Especially for a multi-billion dollar business like the NFL. If Goodell is saying that the conspiracies are a "ridiculous" notion, then do something about the quality and/or methodology of the officiating. Otherwise the conversations will simply continue.
