Without the Ravens playing this weekend, I’ve had plenty of time to give extra attention to every other team and every other game in the league so far this week. I was even able to sit down and watch the entirety (though, I kind of regret it) of the pre-game show to Sunday Night Football.
To anyone who’s up with what’s going on in the league today, the day’s biggest play and one of the biggest stories is the Chargers last-minute loss to the Broncos. The game is notable for a number of reasons… a clash of the AFC West’s best teams, a change for the Chargers to rebound from a devestating last minute loss to the Panthers last week, and now it’s notable for how it ended.
Not only did the game end with Mike Shanahan being Mike Shanahan and going for the win on a 2 point conversion, instead of forcing OT with an extra point… but it ended with great controversey because two plays before that conversion attempt, the Chargers apparently forced and recovered a fumble from the Broncos. The play was ruled an incomplete pass attempt however and replay rules failed to allow the officials to remedy the situation. So rather than the Chargers holding the ball until the bitter end, the Broncos were allowed to meander into the endzone a play later. You can see more about the game here.
However, in all the discussion of tonight’s game another discussion is slowly appearing. Two months ago, ESPN published two articles about officiating in the NFL. In one, NFL coaches vote on which officials they believe are best and worst at their jobs. In the other, Mike Sando discusses how the league addresses conflict between teams and referees.
Somehow both of these stories flew under the radar in the hype of preseason football and training camps. But both deserve some serious discussion. On the lighter side of things, it’s always fun to bash officials. In ESPN’s poll, officials Ed Hochuli and Mike Carey received the most votes for “best official.” (WHAT?!) Both men also received the most votes for worst official, aside from the now-retired Gerald Austin. (More like it…). Regardless, it’s an interesting peak into how coaches view officiating crews.
The second article, however, is the one that I believe really deserves some serious discussion. In it, Mike Sando and his ESPN Research team assert that certain referees are assigned so that they strategically avoid calling the games of certain teams and/or coaches. The longest streak Sando found regarded, surprise!, Ed Hochuli and the Denver Broncos. “[Hochuli] has worked at least three games involving every team but Denver — and an average of more than seven for every other team — since the start of the 2001 season.”
In all, Sando asserts that there are 15 more seemingly “special arrangements” in which officials avoid working games involving one team or another. The reasons range from living too close to a certain team (Jeff Triplette to the Panthers) to particularly bad calls or bad games in years past. And to be perfectly honest, I am not entirely sure that these arrangements are particularly bad.
My biggest query, though, is why should the rest of the league have to put up with Hochuli’s awful officiating while Tampa Bay and Denver get to avoid him or seasons on end?
Additionally, I am most surprised to learn that there appear to be no special arrangements yet made involving the Ravens. Between Brian Billick’s fondness for filing greivances with the league and mocking officials, and this team’s remarkable ability to find itself involved in controversey, how could we not have at least one grudge worth holding? Most specifically, I’m sure this team would love to avoid Mike Carey and his crew following the Yellow Hanky Party he threw for the Ravens in Detroit three seasons ago. Not to mention the flag-fest in Indianapolis in (I believe) 2004, in which Chris McAlister and the Ravens secondary were called for an absurd number of defensive holding penalties.
The Ravens absence from the list might be explained because, according to Sando, several coaches and GMs didn’t even know that such arrangements were in place (whether intentionally or not). Personally, I don’t believe that Ozzie Newsome is one of them, though. This front office knows what is going on around the league.
Anyway, I suppose what I’m getting down to is simple: how do you feel about this? Should teams be able to magically ‘avoid’ certain officiating crews?
To me it appears that even the implication of such a plan is going to impact games. Similar to replay, aren’t officials going to change how they do their jobs if they suspect there could be some sort of trouble? When Mike Shanahan starts to blow a gasket, is that going to stop every official from making the call he needs to make for fear that he may be blacklisted?
And just for fun… let’s go back… we’ve got a whole extra week without serious Ravens talk… who are the league’s best and worst officials?
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