It is time. Clinic attended, check. Rules test taken, check. Camps visited, check. Preseason games officiated, check. It is time for the 2014 NFL season. Just as officials have keys to read on every play, I’m going to be keying in on five things as I zebra-watch from now until the confetti flies after Super…
It was a great weekend of football, and the conference championship officiating crews did well by their respective games. 1. Umpire Bill Schuster had the game of his life Number 129 was everywhere Sunday night. He jumped in between potential combatants, dug to the bottom of fumble scrums, hustled to get the ball back in…
Referee in Colts – Titans game never got replay shot to overturn Luck pick six The NFL’s most prominent officiating experts had much to say about the officiating for Week 14. Former NFL vice president for officiating and FOX Sports officiating analyst Mike Pereira and former NFL supervisor and NBC Sports officiating analyst Jim Daopoulos…
After Further Review: A look at the NFL replay review system Part 1 of a 4-part series After many confusing games this season where instant replay was the focal point, it might be time for the NFL to do away with coach’s challenges and adopt the current NCAA instant replay system. Right now the NCAA…
video 1 (streaming) | video 2 (streaming) | video 3 (222 MB download) Busy, busy Week 12 in officiating, so let’s look at what the officiating department is discussing for “Official Review.” NFL director of officiating and head of instant replay Dean Blandino has the calls: On Thanksgiving Day, the obvious missed call of Texans…
Saints at Falcons (video) This was a downright sloppy play by Scott Green’s crew on Thursday night no matter how you look at it, even though the final ruling on the play was correct. Falcons running back Michael Turner seemed to be stopped and then lost the ball. (This part is correct, even though it…
In the last two weeks, the Falcons (video) and the Lions have both been burned by throwing a red challenge flag on a play subject to automatic review. All indications are this rule will be changed, including comments from the commissioner at a Lions event. Roger Goodell said he doesn’t expect the challenge rule to…
You’ve seen it before; a sweep comes to the sideline and the ball carrier and several other players go crashing out of bounds while the chain gang drops their equipment and runs for their lives. With the advent of instant replay, we’ve seen the chains set for a new series, but replay over-rules the call…
Pereira and Daopoulos analyze the officials Former NFL vice president of officiating and current Fox Sports officiating expert Mike Pereira and former NFL supervisor and current NBC Sports Network officiating expert Jim Daopoulos had many situations to explain during their weekly segments. Daopoulos talked about the strange circumstances surrounding a replay in Chicago, a roughing…
Week 15: Packers at Patriots Referee Ed Hochuli won’t have the benefit of his informative public-address announcements to defend a flag in the second quarter of the Sunday night game. Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com reports a helmet-to-helmet hit by Patriots cornerback Devin McCourty on Packers tight end Andrew Quarless was penalized 20 to 30 seconds after…