Ballerific Sports: Ravens Want NFL to Fix Officiating Errors- blogged by @niksofly

If you have watched football long enough, you consider refs making poor calls a part of the game. Sometimes it decides the fate of a game and at other times, it plays a direct hand in the fate of the team.

Remember the 2014 NFL Season, it was the act of a questionable call that took the Detroit Lions out of the playoffs and progressed the Dallas Cowboys. Another call, a game later when the Cowboys battled against the Green Bay Packers, would send the Cowboys home. Think back to 2013, when a replacement ref blew a call in the Seahawks and Packers game. It was incredibly detrimental. Let’s not forget the Thanksgiving Day 2012 debacle (not that I’m complaining), where an officiating error helped the Texans win. The list goes on, but sometimes it’s not the poor call that hurts the most – it’s the ref’s inability to make a call that can be the most detrimental. 

Sometimes fate has it where bad calls are replaced with hell-of-a plays. Other times, the refs balance them out by calling some not so favorable plays on the opposing team. Widely considered human nature and concrete, the fact is these plays do not have to stand. The league is under immense pressure within and outside of its community.  The Baltimore Ravens want to evolve reviewing thus contributing to the evolution of instant replay. Being affected by a missed call last season and progressively thinking of the future, the Ravens are suggesting a system that would make most plays subject to review, excluding the obvious judgement calls. The suggestion has been explored for nearly two month inside the league’s office.

The NFL Rule book has over two dozen reviewable calls, making all others not. If the Ravens’ suggestion could be implemented, this would mean that instead of a non-reviewable bad call standing, it could be retracted. “We can’t fix it because we decide not to fix it”. Ravens coach John Harbaugh stated as he spoke on the refs officiating errors and current league’s stance. “We can fix it. Just make it reviewable.” The previous outline of challenges would remain in order. As it stands reviews are automatic for scores and turnovers. Each coach gets two challenges with a third being automatic if the coach’s first two challenges are ruled correct. The NFL’s Competition Committee agreed to explore the idea, the likelihood it would adopt the policy at the league meeting next week in Charlotte [North Carolina] is debatable.

The Ravens want the NFL explore the fundamental idea : Why does it allow inaccurate and totally correctable calls to stand? However, according to the Washington Post, the discussions at the league meeting will be more limited than what the Ravens’ suggestion is concerning.  Every year new things are implemented to what is able to be reviewed. What Harbaugh is suggesting is that it is not a matter of if this occurrence happen, but rather when. And if adding things are inevitable, why not address them now rather than later. If it is done now, it will limit the potential future errors that can devastate a team’s history and legacy

-Niko Rose