Gmen Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 After the conference championship games, I've come up with a ingenious solution to the NFL's officiating crisis. First of all, I'd like to start off by saying that we can't expect individual referees to be perfect. They're human. They miss calls and make mistakes just like the rest of us. But their job is not easy. They're running around on the field for hours often time in bitter cold, or sweltering heat. They're typically older gentlemen, so they've seen better days. Maybe they're tired at the end of the game? Maybe their eyesight isn't what it used to be? Again, we can't expect them to be perfect. But maybe they don't have to be perfect. Maybe there is a better way to officiate NFL games? No, I'm not simply calling for penalties to be reviewable. The games are long enough and the flow of the game is completely ruined when the head official has to walk allllll the way across the field, and stare into a Microsoft surface pro for 3 minutes. And then he has to figure out where the ball has to be spotted, and what the game clock should be set to. All the meanwhile, us fans at home, and the broadcasters have already seen all the angles and we know what the correct call should be. And we're sitting there on our couches with our popcorn, or nachos, or whatever your preferred snack is, and we're all saying the same thing - "GET ON WITH THE GAME ALREADY!!!". Look, it's important to get the call right, but it's also important to maintain the flow of the game. So we can't just continue with the current review process, AND allow for penalties to be reviewable. As a millennial and as an engineer, I've embraced technology. I use Alexa. I have my house light turn on and off automatically depending on when the sun sets. My thermostat senses motion and adjusts the temperature accordingly- It's a wonderful technology filled life we live. It's time the NFL embraced technology beyond having a referee look at a Microsoft surface pro. The NFL is a billion dollar corporation and NFL games are consistently the most viewed television events of the year. We can use technology and do so much better. My idea to solve the officiating crisis basically uses the idea concept of "the sum of community knowledge is greater than individual expert knowledge". I propose that we eliminate on-field referees and allow the game to be refereed from a remote location by many referees. By "many" I mean hundreds or even thousands. Yes, you read that right. Thousands of referees sitting behind a computer monitor with access to dozens of camera angles. Each having the ability to "throw a flag", which would be essentially pushing a button on a keyboard. One referee can be wrong or miss a call. But 100? 1000? It's unlikely that that many referees can miss a call. You may be asking right now - wouldn't this bring the game to a crawl? Because as the announcers like to point out, there is holding practically on every play. My solution is to set thresholds. So maybe a penalty isn't assessed unless 20% of the referees "throw the flag". It's all done instantaneously and in real time. We have the technology. In order to get rid of on-field referees, we'll need to address some logistics. Who will spot the ball? Who will keep track of the chains? Answer : Robots. Why do we still have chain movers in the 21st century? Think about it. Robots with flags can do a much, much better job. It would basically be a glorified remote controlled car with an LCD screen attached to a pole displaying the current down and distance. There will be a central screen visible to all fans, coaches and players which will manage the game. The screen will display the obvious - Score, game time, down and distance. But it will also announce the penalties, and even display information about what percentage of the referees agreed to the penalty. This will have the added bonus of also eliminating the annoying complaining by coaches and players. Surely you can't complain about a call when it's displayed that 90% of the officials just flagged you for pass interference, can you? The penalty will be assessed and ball will be spotted automatically, again, by a robot or maybe even a drone for added dramatic effect. So who will these referees be? And how will the NFL pay for thousands of referees? They won't. Officiating will be done for free, by us, knowledgeable hard core football fans. Not just any fans - fans that spend hours upon hours debating football on message boards. Fans that are fed up with games being decided by poor officiating. Won't this create bias? Wouldn't the most popular team always get the calls? No! Every "fan ref" will be required to pass an online training and his performance will be reviewed automatically. If you start to deviate from the mean, and displaying a bias - your right to be a fan ref will be suspended or completely revoked. While we're at it, can we put some freaking sensors in the football so we can tell if it crossed the goal line? Come on people! Welcome to the 21st century. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xmad Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 Officiating done by the fans, for the fans, for free. You have a better chance of asking the NFL players at the next CBA negotiation to let the NFL pay them in NFL merchandise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patriotsheatyan Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 I voted yes before reading your proposal. I already thought you were a genius. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kay z Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 of course it was a giants fan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asciimo Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 Neat ideas, but they will never happen because the referees are a union. Dumb, but it is what it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParTime13 Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 How about follow FIFA mandatory retirement at 45. Ok since football doesnt require as much running as soccer make it 55. Some of these guys are in late 60's and cant outrun a 350 pound OT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackstar12 Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 46 minutes ago, ParTime13 said: How about follow FIFA mandatory retirement at 45. Ok since football doesnt require as much running as soccer make it 55. Some of these guys are in late 60's and cant outrun a 350 pound OT. Naw it has more to do with they're vision and decision making than legs. I agree 45-50 sounds about right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinSting Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 Wait...it's not Apple iPads used by the NFL? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAF-N72EX Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 While this suggestion is better than no suggestion at all, I say no. We can't even trust this technology being used in the presidential voting. As someone who does IT work, mostly in security, I could never get behind this idea. Wherever there is technology, there is always someone out there looking for ways to use it for malicious reasons. Understand that while technology can certainly be great in alot of ways to make life easier or make things things work more smoothly, it is still created by humans who are prone to just as many mistakes or oversights as those officials are on the field. And those mistakes are essentially what lead to holes in security which are then used for exploits. Any data point can be used to find a vulnerability and this idea that you're proposing would be a one giant gold mine for hackers. Even security risks aside there are too many things that happen in real time that cannot be judged by fans or robots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tugboat Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 Let's just replace the games themselves with thousands of Madden simulations run simultaneously instead. 1 simulation could be wrong, 10 could be wrong, but 100, 1000 Madden simulations? There's no way that could be wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patriotsheatyan Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 7 minutes ago, JustAnotherFan said: While this suggestion is better than no suggestion at all, I say no. We can't even trust this technology being used in the presidential voting. As someone who does IT work, mostly in security, I could never get behind this idea. Wherever there is technology, there is always someone out there looking for ways to use it for malicious reasons. Understand that while technology can certainly be great in alot of ways to make life easier or make things things work more smoothly, it is still created by humans who are prone to just as many mistakes or oversights as those officials are on the field. And those mistakes are essentially what lead to holes in security which are then used for exploits. Any data point can be used to find a vulnerability and this idea that you're proposing would be a one giant gold mine for hackers. Even security risks aside there are too many things that happen in real time that cannot be judged by fans or robots. Imagine what Brady would do to this technology? The Patriots would lose a first round pick before the season even began. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VigilantZombie Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 Everything, including penalties should be reviewable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gmen Posted January 25, 2019 Author Share Posted January 25, 2019 11 hours ago, Tugboat said: Let's just replace the games themselves with thousands of Madden simulations run simultaneously instead. 1 simulation could be wrong, 10 could be wrong, but 100, 1000 Madden simulations? There's no way that could be wrong. If we could accurately model the players and the physics of football, this wouldn’t be a bad idea. But eventually football will be played by robots anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gmen Posted January 25, 2019 Author Share Posted January 25, 2019 12 hours ago, FinSting said: Wait...it's not Apple iPads used by the NFL? That would be ironic considering the amount of Microsoft surface pro commercials we have to sit through Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Nix Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 Maybe give each team 3 penalty challenges a game instead? That way if you use them up it’s on you. Decide if you feel a certain penalty is game changing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.