Here's how I think the NFL needs to react to last night's disaster (1 Viewer)

[parlorcitysaint]

Until they make refs accountable for bad/non calls, I'm out.

I'll always love my Saints, but I won't watch another game, and I won't ask for any merchandise as gifts. I'm done with this farce.

 

[Saintina]

Here's what I think should happen..

First off, u can't review every play that might be a penalty..especially holds on the line, those go on all the time.

Here's what should be done..instead of 2 challenges, give teams 3 challenges and make PI's and targeting a reviewable play.

A play like yesterday shouldn't have to be reviewed because it was so obvious, but if Payton had a challenge to use there, he could have use it.

If college can go back and look at "targeting" then why can't the NFL?? PI's wouldn't be really hard to look at either. The PI against Ginn was missed and the TLL, both "key" 3rd plays that would have kept drives alive. I really don't know how u miss some plays that are so obvious.

So they’ll just PI and target more than 3 times.

 

[Saintina]

Last week my Eagles fan brother in law texted me Monday saying”Man, woke this morning and it hurts”. I smugly didn’t reply. Now I know how he feels. Let’s get over this. Boo Ya SB 54, Mr. Brees’s Swan Song.

The Saints didn’t have the Eagles game gift wrapped and given to them. No, this hurts more.

 

[Maik Jeaunz]

I think this is how they’re probably reacting:

 

[Metalmat]

Realistically I don't really know what the NFL will do about this call. You sure as hell won't hear anything soon, they are focused on the SB. They could simply just not address it but I have a hard time thinking they would do this. I would imagine the most likely scenario is that they just do some bare minimum effort move like say they will implement more training for the officials. I highly doubt they go all in with some big sweeping changes like being able to review PI calls and full time refs. Unfortunately we are just too small of a market to really push the needle much, had this happen to a team like the NY Giants then you would see the NFL on tilt.

 

[Quiet Storm]

So they’ll just PI and target more than 3 times.

U would think the refs would actually call the fouls, therefore, no need to challenge those penalties.

 

[Saintina]

That’s not possible. That would cost the league and cities billions.

Now, if you want to take away LA’s upcoming Super Bowl and give it to New Orleans, you’re talkin my language.

How? It’s a year away.

 

[Matteoma1]

Look the NFL isn’t going to admit failure. They let Gayle Benson put out a statement and left it at that. Her statement was weak IMO, it addressed the problem but just said we will look into it. Then she tried to make an emotional connection to the fan and say that “we are all a big family”. It couldn’t be further from the truth, she got paid and the fans got screwed. Ownership may understand the fans plight, they will never agree with it. It doesn’t make since because of how the league shares revenue. Robert kraft was about the last one that ever tried to battle the league. Even then it was sort of half hearted because he is going against himself.

That being said they aren’t gonna change rules. Belicheck has brought up the penalty challenge and non call challenge. Also changing challenges allowable under two minutes. I think he has done it since the challenges came back.... what was that 10 years? In the time technology has progressed and we are at the point we can easily do this. I honestly think the nfl does not want to do this because it allows a bit of uncertainty in the games and allows them to decide crucial calls. It allows them to better control their product and effect the flow of games.

 

[charlieT]

Nothing can be done to fix yesterday's debacle, obviously. Those in the media who are trying to muddy the water with "what about" scenarios concerning other calls/noncalls earlier in the game and other mistakes the Saints made during the game miss the point entirely, and they are only rubbing salt in the wound. It's not possible to explain this away. The team and its fans were robbed and life isn't fair. Those are the facts today and they will not change.

That stated, for my own purposes, I am trying to identify the conditions under which I can see myself returning to the NFL as a fan. So far as I can tell there are 3 things that must happen, at a minimum:

1. An unequivocal statement must be issued by the NFL acknowledging the blown call. Hearsay about a call between Payton and the league after the game is not enough. This statement can be short and to the point, but the NFL PR folks need to be very careful about any kind of hedging or CYA nonsense in the statement. For me, the league needs to confront and own the mistake, or it will permanently lose any shred of credibility it currently has (I know many here will contend it already has no credibility, and fair enough).

2. Some consequence needs to be felt by those responsible for the officiating. I don't know exactly what this needs to look like except that, at a minimum, those responsible for the non-call on the field cannot be allowed to officiate another playoff game. Perhaps other heads need to roll too, but I don't see how any outcome short of this works.

3. The NFL needs to take concrete steps this offseason to improve the officiating process so this cannot happen again. As with point 2, I do not know exactly what this change needs to be and it will probably take months of debate and review to determine the details. That's process/review period is ok with me, as long as the eventual outcome is a better system.

If all 3 of those things occur, I can see myself coming back. If any of those 3 things do not occur, I doubt I will be able to continue as a consumer of the NFL's products.

Rant over.

WON'T HAPPEN. ROGER will implement the forget about it in 10 days and move on. There will be no consequences. Roger is not sweating New Orleans. He does not care.

 

[Swimmer]

You are over complicating things. The refs just needed to look up at the Jumbotron and see the obvious. They just need to learn that swallowing your pride and admitting a mistake while there is time to do something about it is entirely possible.

I hope the entire officiating crew gets fired.

I respect your opinions very much and agree in principal 100%. But we don't know what really happened. Maybe NFL headquarters told the head of that officiating crew to "LEAVE IT ALONE!" I am making-up a story, but we really don't know what goes on behind the scenes at the high levels of the NFL. And maybe Goodell has told a few cronies that the Saints will never win another SB as long as either he is the commissioner or SP is the HC of the Saints. Again, another made-up story, but to me, the NFL's official non-story is no more plausible than these made-up stories

 

[play action]

Call an honest game. The problem they have is those who don't by the ooops stuff are really put off and raising hell,as they should be.

 

[Bill]

The problem wasn't the rules! The PI occurred right in front of two referees who were looking directly at the play. The Rams player said a ref told him it was tipped, but the ball wasn't anywhere near any Rams player. The problem is that we got screwed.

We know that the NFL didn't want a playoff game to be determined by a penalty. So they went out of their way to "let them play," but if someone commits an egregious penalty on a pivotal play, YOU HAVE TO CALL THE PENALTY!

The only way that a penalty review could work is having the league office overrule a call or no-call when it is obviously wrong. You could have someone on the team as the designated penalty challenger (someone less in the trenches than the Coach, like an owner or GM, so that it's not used strategically but only when truly necessary), and the challenger requests that the NFL review the call from the league office. The game pauses, allowing the NFL to either decline to review it based on it being a judgment call (i.e., they don't second guess calls that could go either way, as so many calls do), or it can review the play and confirm or overturn the call (or no call).

The NFL would be opening Pandora's box by allowing a challenge rule for penalties broader than that, but there's got to be a way to have some accountability. My guess is that the refs would've thrown the flag if they knew the play could've been reviewed.

I agree. Let's not turn the NFL Rule Book into something akin to a government tax or health manual. The rules that are already in place would have ended the game correctly and without controversy. While I believe that there is a place for technology & AI to correct things like properly spotting a football, I don't have a problem with keeping the human element in the game.

But my main concern is what falls into the categories of "Obvious" and "Flagrant". For example, I have seen officials keep the flags in their pants when they see a defender's hand graze and/or temporarily catch a player's facemask while reaching to make a tackle. Since the player's head was not twisted or deflected in any direction and the defender quickly released it, I have no problem with such a non-call. In fact that official is invoking the principle of the rule... which is the effort to eliminate/limit injuries. If a head/neck is violently jerked or twisted, this should be flagged every time, all day long. A reasonable human official who understands the rules should be able to get this call right every time he actually sees this occurring on a play.

Let's jump to Pass Interference calls. Most would agree that every contested pass has some level of touching/contact between the receiver and defender. To say that the defender should be penalized each and every time would clearly be a ridiculous application of the rules. But a reasonable human official who understands the rules should be able to determine if there is a direct physical attempt to impede the receiver's right to the approaching football. This is where the categories of 'obvious & flagrant' comes in.

Some contact and hand checking is simply battling for the football. It should be ruled as such. But when a receiver is grabbed or laid out by a defender prior to the arrival of the pass, it is both 'obvious & flagrant' and must be considered as a violation of the rules. Even if there is initially no flag, a penalty should definitely be enforced whether it comes from the officiating crew on the field or an over-ruling NFL authority that has access to both a real time replay and multiple camera angles of the violation. A very brief stoppage and a call to the head official on the field corrects the mistake and moves the game along in a fair and proper way.

If the league would simply amend this single element to any 'obvious & flagrant' errors committed by the field crew, then controversies like what we just witnessed are practically eliminated. Such an 'over-ruling NFL authority' would naturally ignore any calls that could rightly be defined as 'judgment in nature' and/or 'holding to the principle of the rule'.

If the NFL would apply this method of correcting 'obvious & flagrant' officiating mistakes, the NFL returns to the level of integrity that we all wish for it to be. It's not that hard to get it right.

 

[SaintsFan11]

Bill, we agree 100%. It’s as simple as having someone text the refs to throw a flag. I worry that even this could be abused, and it will certainly have negative impacts at times, but if used truly sparingly, particularly on scoring plays, turnovers, or within two minutes of the end of a half, it could work. Probably shouldn’t apply to all penalties. Only penalties that affect the outcome of the play, and then maybe you don’t include penalties like holding, unless you limit it to a certain class of holding penalties.

 

[Bill]

Bill, we agree 100%. It’s as simple as having someone text the refs to throw a flag. I worry that even this could be abused, and it will certainly have negative impacts at times, but if used truly sparingly, particularly on scoring plays, turnovers, or within two minutes of the end of a half, it could work. Probably shouldn’t apply to all penalties. Only penalties that affect the outcome of the play, and then maybe you don’t include penalties like holding, unless you limit it to a certain class of holding penalties.

The word you are looking for is 'INDISPUTABLE'. A booth official looking at a replay would know in an instant if a call or no-call would be something that would create controversy during or after a game. It's just a matter of saying, "Let's look at that one again." No one should be afraid of wanting to get the call right. And if the video evidence is conclusive, even those who do not benefit from seeing the correct call enacted on the field have nothing really to complain about. To do so would just make them look biased and stupid.

 

[dtc]

U would think the refs would actually call the fouls, therefore, no need to challenge those penalties.

In reality, that's what should have happened.

The ref who saw the contact should have thrown the flag. Were the other refs to have confirmed the ball was tipped they could have picked it up. Somehow the ref who was going to throw the flag was led to believe the ball was tipped so no foul.

Going forward, there should be a single challenge available to both teams in the case of a game changing event like this.