BBH Original: Upon Further Review- By BayAreaGiants

[MightyGiants]

BBH's own former college official (his name is Al by the way) does an in-depth look at the NFL rule changes this season.  Al also has connections with NFL officials which allows him more insights.  We are going to try something different this season.  We are going to leave the thread unlocked for people to ask questions.  Now I know refs are not popular with many fans.  We at BBH as you keep the questions and comments respectful.   

A LOOK AT THE NFL OFFICIATING CHANGES

by BayAreaGiants (Al)


It is almost time to play football again and time to take a look at some of the changes that have (or haven't) been made related to NFL officiating during the off season.

NFL Front Office Changes

Despite the assumptions of some and the claims of many, the discipline (i.e., fines and suspensions) that is handed down weekly to NFL players is not the work of Roger Goodell but a committee within the NFL office previously headed by Merton Hanks, the ex-49er and reporting to Troy Vincent, Executive Vice President of Football Operations. Both Hanks and Vincent, as well as the other members of the committee are ex-players.

Hanks left his position with the NFL during the offseason and the league has announced that Jon Runyan has been appointed to a newly created position of vice president of policy and rules administration. Among his duties, Runyan will serve as the executive in charge of on-field discipline

[Ed Vette]

Excellent, Al!

When you mentioned Runyon being named the second most dirtiest player by peers it reminded me of the saying, "We teach what we must learn."


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[BayAreaGiant]

Another potentially applicable statement is  that" You set a thief to catch a thief." And I am not necessarily talking about his political career.

[LennG]

Al

Not to start a controversy here, but Refs like Morelli have been bad for a number of years. What does one have to do to get released or demoted to a regular official. Myself, I have never been a fan of Morelli. He really looks lost out there many times. I know there must be bright young guys out there who would and could do a much better job, so why is it so hard to get the 'bad' wood off the pile and bring in energetic new blood.

AND, how did the lone female official do last year, and, I assume, she is back?

[BayAreaGiant]

Pete Morelli has constantly ranked in the top half of the individuals at his position for many years. He is an excellent rules person and is an effective teacher and leader so I disagree with your assessment. There have been occasions when Referees have been moved back to other positions after a few years for multiple reasons. Referees are graded on a variety of factors many of which are not recognized by the viewing public. Unfortunately last season Morelli was saddled with a crew that had problems including Sara Thomas and the others spent much effort covering up for her. She has now been moved to Walt Anderson's crew. The effectiveness of many Referees is highly dependent upon the strength of the crew that they are assigned and there is often little that can be done to cover up a weak link. 

[MightyGiants]

Al,

I want to publicly thank you for sharing these outstanding insights.   Have you heard anything about where they would put an extra official?

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[BayAreaGiant]

Probably deep downfield splitting the field with the Back Judge. Another possibility is in the Offensive Backfield similar to the Center Judge in college.

[MightyGiants]

Al, our resident officiating expert goes over more of the rule changes for the 2016 season:

Each year the NFL rulesmakers tweak the rules in most part to address situations that arose during the season and, at least lately, to improve player safety. The changes often take two forms: a) new or revised rules and b) changes to the wording contained in the rule book intended to clarify existing rules. [A further mechanism are the Points of Emphasis that that are issued to the officials and shared with the team to highlight situations that require further attention from the officials. One such situation last year was the setting of picks by offensive receivers that should be (and were) called as Offensive Pass Interference.]  Given the number of such changes this year, I will address them in two separate postings.   

Specifically, the rules changes are as follows:

4-5-1 and 4-6-5 - Makes it a foul for delay of game when a team timeout is erroneously granted.

5-3-3 Permits the offensive and defensive play callers to use coach-to player communication system regardless of whether they are on the field or in the coaches

[Bob In PA]

Al: This seems to me like an unusually large number of changes for a single year. 

Is this about the same amount of changes as usual?

Bob

[BayAreaGiant]

Bob - It is only 9 "rules changes" and the rest are wording changes/clarifications. This is about standard although there are years where there are fewer and years where there are more. I would put it right in the middle. Last year there were 9. In 2014 there were 6. It all depends on what "strange" or controversial situations occurred during the previous season. 

[Ed Vette]

How on earth do they remember all this in a dynamic fast moving game like football. It's no wonder that this group of Officials are comprised of some very successful people with prior and current demanding careers. In other words, they would have to be scoring pretty high on the wonderlic test as well as being multi-taskers.   

[LennG]

How on earth do they remember all this in a dynamic fast moving game like football. It's no wonder that this group of Officials are comprised of some very successful people with prior and current demanding careers. In other words, they would have to be scoring pretty high on the wonderlic test as well as being multi-taskers.

I can't speak for Al, but knowing the rules is second nature. You don't stop and think (unless it is something very out of the ordinary), you just make a call and know it is correct. Same as in baseball, I make calls and do not have to stop and think what the rule is, I know it and make that call naturally.It is all about the way it is interpreted by each individual, and I'm sure it applies to all sports officials.
Each man MIGHT interpret a basic rule a bit differently in their own mind. Each rule is clear cut but we are all individuals and in each mind we may see what is clear cut, just a bit differently, even if it is specific in the rules. It is human nature.

[BayAreaGiant]

When you spend many years and many off season sessions studying the rules, they almost become second nature to you. It also helps that there is a certain logic to the rules (that is often not understood by the typical fan) that enables you to quickly go through a progression in your mind to arrive at the necessary  conclusion. Combining that with repeated testing and reviews both during the off season and in-season and the fact that there are six others on the field with you to question if a decision does not seem right, makes the overall process a fairly easy one for those involved. It also helps that given the extensive experience of many of the officials in the NFL, they have seen it all at one time or another in their careers so very little is "new" when the situation arises on the field. This is one of the reasons that I react negatively when I see cries from some that what is needed in the NFL is "younger" officials. "Younger" often means less experience and with less experience comes less understanding of the basis for the rules.

As a result of all of the above, the calls that are made on the field are the result of a number of factors but the over riding factor is the dedication and experience of the individuals making them.     

[Ed Vette]

Thanks Al and Lenn. Al I have a question. Maybe I'm having a senior moment but I recall somewhere reading about moving in the hash marks for a preseason. Any recollection?


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[BayAreaGiant]

A number of things have been talked about to make the kicking game more difficult including the possibility of using narrower goal posts. But I have not seen anything about moving the hash marks. I will check when I get a chance.