I don't think they have an agenda. I just don't believe they are trained as well as they could be if they were full time. It's to bad a 9 Billion dollar business can't have full time employess for the most important position on the field.
Freak THE NFL!
I have heard this brought up plenty in the past. This isn't about the $$$ or the NFL being stubborn in its reluctance to hire "full time" officials. This is more about the practical nature of the sport. It's played ONCE a week. Unlike ANY other professional sport, where games are played on a nightly basis. It just is NOT practical to hire 120 officials and have them be "FULL TIME" employees for what amounts to be a one day a week profession. They get plenty of "training" in terms of rules knowledge. They have weekly video conferences, with updated points of emphasis, and receive more video than you can imagine to digest on plays that happen throughout the season. I personally know 3 people who have held down the "job" and have seen first hand the things they do in preparation for a season, and week to week.
I have been a Supervisor of Umpires for a Professional Independent Minor League, and I know how difficult it is to communicate a common message to a group of officials, where they all understand the interpretations expected of them.
That being said, IMO, the biggest issue with the officiating in the NFL right now, is the so called emphasis on safety, which now puts so much onus on pure judgment, and less on the strict interpretation of the rules. Because there has been such a dramatic shift in the rules towards safety, you now have more layers to what should be a basic play, and what you have to interpret as a "legal" play.
Take the play which IMO, started things today. The NON call against Seattle on the obvious illegal hit on Veltung on the punt return. There was so much happening on that one play, and no less than 4 rules which needed to be interpreted. First of all, since Veltung did NOT signal for a fair catch, the official (who was behind the play) had to interpret whether he had an opportunity to make a catch on the punt. If you watch the replay, he reached for his penalty flag, only to change his mind when Veltung held on to the ball. In that split second, he changed his mind, and since he was so focused on that part of the play, he did NOT pay attention to the "illegal hit to the head" with the forearm shiver that was delivered.
Then to compile an already bad call, you have Armstrong taking yet another cheap shot after the play, which just further draws attention away from the initial infraction on Seattle. The thing for me, that makes it so tough to swallow, is there are SEVEN sets of eyes on the field. There is never an excuse for something to get "missed" that has that much of an impact on the play. i.e: where the BALL IS!
What's the most disturbing thing for me, is that before the opening kickoff in most of these games, if you are paying attention, you know which crews are going to be good, and which ones aren't.
AS soon as I saw the FIRST penalty being called, and realized that Jeff Tripplett's crew was assigned to this game, I knew there would be trouble. If you looked at the individual officials when all the crap started, they looked like they had a "deer in the headlights" look on their face. Especially the Line Judge that called the "Verbally abusing an official" penalty.
This was akin to the look a High School official has on his face when he works his first college game. They were so far in over their head it was scary. Trust me, I have been a Division I NCAA Baseball umpire for 25 years, and like I mentioned, have supervised a professional league for 6 years, so for ME to criticize officials is rare. But this has gotten to a point of embarrassment for the NFL.
The best way to fix it, is to take a step back, and while not publicly admit you are going to lessen your point of emphasis on safety, but to make sure your officials understand that at some point, leave the game in the players hands, and be more consistent across the league in their interpretations.
