Mike Tomlin’s Steelers beat the Browns on Sunday. There didn’t seem to be any controversial calls by game officials that obviously impacted such a one-sided game.
And yet the Steelers head coach, unprompted, griped about the way officials called the game.
“We were on the field more than we needed to be,” Tomlin told reporters after the 24-9 victory in Cleveland. “I thought the officiating was questionable at times. Maybe that had something to do with it. I just thought it was questionable. I thought there were some bad calls or some no-calls.”
Tomlin didn’t elaborate on what he didn’t like. It almost didn’t matter. His complaints have been echoed by coaches, players and fans throughout this NFL season.
This is nothing new. There is a long tradition of NFL participants and consumers complaining about officiating. But the objections seem to be particularly prevalent this season, particularly after some coaches have been outspoken about what they believe to be bad calls.
It has gotten to the point that the NFL, usually reticent to discuss specific calls, has admitted that game officials erred in a few cases. Yet the league has sent mixed messages about whether there is a systemic problem with officiating that should or can be addressed.
Critics have noted that the NFL is the only major sports league in the U.S. that doesn’t have full-time officials. Dean Blandino, the NFL’s vice president of officiating, said the league eventually may hire head referees full time.
“This is definitely something we’ve discussed in the past,” Blandino said on NFL Network, adding that the issue “will be on the agenda during the offseason.”
However, league commissioner Roger Goodell has expressed skepticism about the need for full-time officials.
Speaking at a recent conference sponsored by the New York Times, Goodell said he would only consider hiring officials full time if he thought it would “solve the problem,” which he considers unlikely because of the “human element” inherent in making judgment calls.
Goodell said other sports leagues have errant calls in spite of officials working full time.
“Our officials work incredibly hard and the reality is they do a great job,” Goodell said. “But they’re going to miss calls.”
When they do, coaches, players and fans will complain. Goodell said he’s aware of the increase in those complaints, noting that when he was in the parking lot for a New York Giants game, he “got a lot of feedback” from fans about the issue.
Saints coach Sean Payton channeled the frustrations of his coaching peers during an interview with NBC Sports Radio earlier this month.
“There aren’t many Mondays that go by that there aren’t at least 28 to 30 head coaches that are ticked off about certain calls that were missed or weren’t made,” Payton said. “You see it all the time. And it’s the frustration that the system currently hasn’t improved. We say it has, but it hasn’t.”
During that interview Payton referenced a controversial no-call that affected the Falcons. Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman grabbed wide receiver Julio Jones on the Falcons’ final play of a Week 6 loss in Seattle and the unthrown penalty flag became part of a national discussion.
Falcons coach Dan Quinn said he queried league officials about that play. A week later, Quinn again said he talked to the league, this time after a Chargers defender grabbed Jones on a key play and officials again called nothing.
Quinn would not share what league told him about that calls. But he said he used those incidents to remind his team about the importance of finishing strong so that missed or bad calls have less impact on the outcome. (The Falcons led late against both the Seahawks and Chargers).
“We’ll let the officials decide how they’re going to call it,” Quinn said. “That’s their training and expertise. It’s up to us to go let it rip and play as aggressive as we can. That’s out of our control, what they may or may not call.”
The NFL never publicly addressed Quinn’s concerns about those calls but has admitted that officials blew calls in other cases. The most prominent incident came during a Bills-Seahawks Monday night game on Nov. 7.
On the play, Sherman jumped offsides on a Bills field-goal try and made contact with kicker Dan Carpenter while deflecting the ball. Carpenter got another chance because of the offsides penalty but officials failed to reset the play clock as one of them stood over the ball and a resultant delay of game penalty moved the ball back five yards.
Carpenter missed the retry and Bills coach Rex Ryan and his bench bitterly complained about the sequence during and after the game. Referee Walt Anderson told a pool reporter afterwards that officials erred in not resetting the clock but said Sherman wasn’t called for unnecessary roughness because the play was in the process of being blown dead and officials didn’t believe the contact warranted a foul.
Blandino later said Anderson’s crew botched the play.
“We looked at it (on replay) and it is a foul,” Blandino said. “It is no different than a defender coming offside and hitting a quarterback after the whistle blew. So it should have been unnecessary roughness.”
Unnecessary roughness is among the judgment calls that aren’t covered under the league’s replay review rules. Goodell said the league is focused on using technology to improve officiating but expanding those plays subject to review would cause friction between the league’s competitive goal of getting calls right vs. its marketing goal of shortening games.
The average game lasted three hours and eight minutes during the 2015 regular season. Goodell said the pace of play could be a factor in the NFL’s declining television ratings and said the league is looking into cutting advertising breaks to make broadcasts shorter.
Expanding replay, Goodell said, “can slow the game down to a halt.”
“If you can challenge every play, we’re going to spend more of our time watching video,” he said.
Obviously coaches and players are not concerned about how long games last. With their jobs on the line, the games’ participants don’t want bad calls to affect the outcomes, which they believe is happening more and more.
Payton is among those who want the NFL to do something to address the issue.
“Listen, I think we’ve got a great group of officials,” Payton said. “These guys work their tails off. And yet, there are so many things right now that need to be fixed. And I think we as a league need to look at (them) and help them.”
