It takes a lot for this space to turn on the crews. This year has been particularly troubling for officiating, although a fair share of the criticism has been a mixture of trumped-up rhetoric and outrage over quick judgement calls without the benefit of replay. Improved technology that offers crisp
Tag: Bills
Suspending officials is uncommon in NFL
8 known suspensions of officials for on-field incidents The NFL rarely has suspended officials for their conduct on the field; although it is possible that some may have occurred without public knowledge, this list is complete for all reported suspensions. Also, there are two known cases of officials (not included
Roundtable Week 8: illegal bats in football, Brees’s consecutive false starts
Media tape: 10-sec runoffs, holding by hair, no touchback on ‘force-out’
Dean Blandino, vice president of officiating at the NFL, has released his weekly tape for the media on rules clarifications (140 MB download). Here are the items under discussion: During the final minute of the second quarter of the Seahawks-Cardinals game, the discussion of a 10-second runoff came up twice. The
Week 5 remainders
We have some leftover items from Week 5, so let's serve them up before their expiration dates pass. Bengals lost timeout Prior to a Bengals 3rd-and-goal situation, the crew stopped the clock for a game clock adjustment. When the game clock was stopped, and additional three seconds ticked off the play clock,
Training tape: defenseless receiver, taunting, clock on out-of-bounds fumble
Dean Blandino, NFL vice president of officiating, released this week's media tape regarding rules calls mostly from Week 4 (150 MB download). This week's topics: When defenseless protections end. The play in question was a legal hit on Lions receiver Calvin Johnson, correctly called (SJ 67 Doug Rosenbaum, BJ 93 Scott
Official Review: line to gain, hits on QB kneeldown
NFL vice-president of officiating Dean Blandino has two items in this week's "Official Review" segment (video):The review of a spot in the Patriots-Falcons game that was deemed inconclusiveWhy the hit on Bills quarterback  E.J. Manuel by Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs was illegal, even though Manuel was considered a live target.Even
Kickoff 2013: The officials by the numbers
Click the image to enlarge. It is time to kick off the new football season! Here are some numbers for all of the zebra watchers out there. Enjoy! Designed and researched by Ben Austro. Sources: NFL Record and Fact Book (2013, 2008, 2000); Pro-Football-Reference.com (Coleman, Freeman, McKinnely); Football Zebras, "Officiating crews for the