Only 10% of NFL officials are currently full-time. Even after the strike, that's a still a problem. Not only should they be full-time, but they should probably get bonuses for penalties called. Need to be convinced how tough their job is? Take a peek at the NFL rulebook.
It needs to lose some weight. Before the season, the league got rid of the Tuck Rule. However, they added pages elsewhere. If you remember, they also inserted rules for running backs lowering their heads outside the tackle box, rules for alternate helmets to protect players from concussions, outlawed peel back blocks, required players to wear thigh pads and a rule that penalizes coaches for mistakenly thrown challenge flags. Now offensive lineman are seeking amendments that protect the big men in the trenches.
During a Monday appearance on Fox Sports 1, former Vice President of NFL officials Mike Pereira pointed out a trio of misinterpretations of the rulebook that have occurred in the last three weeks.
The officials made incorrect calls including the wrongly assessed offsetting penalties between the Niners and Packers that should have given the Niners a first down instead of the third down they were rewarded, a 15-yard penalty that should have been a timeout charged for the Vikings and a missed chop block call on the Titans because officials believed they could not be called on quarterback runs.
Pereira pulled out a copy of the rulebook and asked aloud whether there may be too much fat within the rulebook's pages.
Via Pro Football Talk:
“The question has to become, has this manifesto become a little bit too big and too confusing?” Pereira said. “For the third time now in three weeks, we have the officials mis-enforcing a penalty.”
The NFL rulebook ishould cut some of its excessively complicated rules, but based on conversations taking place within NFL circles, they may be thinking just the opposite.
