By Ryan Addeo, WSBU Editor
The NFL has had a huge, glaring issue for the past decade. That issue is their referees. When you talk with someone about the biggest problems in the NFL, they will tell you there are too many penalties. Usually, these penalties are needed to provide a fair playing experience for both teams. However, often times a bad call or a missed call will ruin a game for a team. Fans all across the league are aware of this problem yet have come to simply accept the fact that the referees will continue to ruin parts of the game.
The Kansas City Chiefs have even been synonymous within the NFL for being a team that the referees tend to ‘favor’ over their opponents. In fact, Patrick Mahomes leads the league in interceptions called back due to penalties since he started in the league in 2018 (17). The Chiefs had 5.4 penalties per game this season, the lowest in the NFL and in playoff games since 2021, the Chiefs have not been penalized more than their opponents once. This is not a good look for the league, as many people are often drawn away from these games due to poor calls from the officials.
Throughout the 2024 season alone, we see blatant missed calls that are simply overlooked. For example, in week 8, Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback Sam Darnold’s no-call facemask from Byron Young sealed the game for the victorious Los Angeles Rams. It seems like every week there is a new referee controversy.
But there are ways for the NFL to fix this.
First, they can start holding these referees accountable. In the MLB, umpires are held accountable for the calls they make at the plate. They have their own statistics and are held accountable when they make a bad call. There is no accountability for NFL referees. While I know being an NFL referee is difficult, as there is more to call than just ball or strike, there are still ways to hold them accountable. For example, if a referee frequently calls ‘roughing the passer’ penalties, you can add that to his statistics, similar to if an MLB umpire calls a lot of low pitched strikes. If a referee misses a blatant facemask call, add that to his statistics, and so on.
Another way to possibly solve this problem would be to implement a challenging system for penalties or for no calls.
This system is already being used and tested in the UFL (formerly known as the XFL and USFL). In the UFL if a referee makes a call you think is wrong, you can challenge that call to possibly get it overturned. Additionally, if a referee misses a call you think is blatant, you can challenge that and possibly get a penalty called. While many may say that this would make the games longer and more drawn out than they already are, you could limit the number of penalty challenges a team gets, so they are not using their challenge on every down.
While I’m sure everyone is aware of the difficulty of being an NFL referee, every fan is asking for some consistency and accountability from the referees and the league. Without it, many fans are turning away from the game and many games are being ruined or hindered due to a missed or bad call.
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