Open Letter to Seattle: Responding to the NFL Referee Issue

By: Chicago Sports Review

Milton Friedman, who is essentially the father of modern economics, is - naturally - a proponent of free markets. And in this modern age of government reliance, he often finds himself straddling a line between supporting a pure free market approach, or ceding some to the populace, and acknowledging that an ounce of governmental oversight might be helpful.

So what does this have to do with NFL referees and the Seattle Seahawks fans? Bear with me.

For example, Friedman was recently asked about the problem of social security for baby boomers, and his response stated that it “…will test the argument over the efficiency of the market versus political demands for government to step in.”

Seattle Seahawks fans, and many NFL fans in general, are weighing the same issue when it comes to the referees. Should we alter the system based on the apparent failures of a single game - or playoff season - or should we just say, based on statistics, if you have one game like this every 40 Super Bowl’s, things ain’t that bad? Should we let the competition that creates a good NFL ref continue, or should we demand greater league involvement? Or, should we find another option altogether? Robot refs?

In the United States, people are so government and institutionally reliant, they often assume that there will be a better way, if only we can have a committee meeting on it.

Seattle fans were hoping for a league committee meeting on it, perhaps to discuss whether we should replay the game, or make Bill Leavy write an apology letter to each NFL fan John Irving style. Shorthand. Imagine the blisters he would have!

But for the fans of Seattle, unfortunately, the NFL has met, and spoken, and “We feel remorse” wasn’t on the subject line of the memo.

“The game was properly officiated, including, as in most NFL games, some tight plays that produced disagreement about the calls made by the officials,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in a statement released yesterday.

Unfortunately, the refereeing in the NFL was bad for the better part of the post-season, and people can acknowledge that surely, something must be done.

The Options

Seattle fans, and other writers, have made a few suggestions. I’d sum them up like this…

1. Make the NFL refs full-time, subject them to intense training on a year-round basis.
2. Leave the system the way it is. Shoot, this doesn’t happen much.
3. Leave the system the way it is, but institute more efficient replay measures, similar to what the college game has.
4. Dump bad refs regularly, and bring in new ones, based on regular performance appraisals.
5. Spank bad refs in Seattle’s Pioneer Square like naughty teens in Singapore who were audacious enough to spit out their gum.
6. Problem? We don’t see no stinking problem!

The most popular answer I hear is that NFL refs should become full-time, and that somehow the system would improve. To me, the market forces proponent, this makes little sense both psychologically, and in a business-sense.

For one, when did you try harder, when you were trying out, or after you had made the team?

Secondly, to create a full-time system for the referees instantly creates unions. Ask Detroit autoworkers about how well that system works. For one, the guy who works 21 Sundays a year (assuming pre-season is in) changing the yard marker from 3rd down to 4th suddenly will have a union representative demanding he make in the mid six-figures.

If you don’t think this can happen, just remember that strikes and labor disagreements in other leagues are commonplace. So are bad calls. That said, those leagues play so many more games, they have to maintain full-time officials. Adding to that, since when do full-time refs, now with the security of their referee union, have incentive to become a lot better?

In fact, the refs instantly become more powerful, and can better hide from their errors. Full-time refs mean full-time PR control. Whereas currently, a bad game can cause a demotion.

Here in Chicago, the baseball post-season was marred for Anaheim Angels (I won’t call them Los Angeles) fans when the umpiring in a game went against them. All umpire Doug Eddings said to us media grunts during a postgame press conference was that the call was good. ‘Nuff said.

Could he be canned? Hardly. His crew worked the next game too.

The point? These things happen. So to say that the referees should be made full-time makes little sense in regards to the physical hours worked, but also in terms of somehow making them more accountable for their errors, or less powerful in defending their mistakes. Would they be better? Look at other leagues for your answer. It’s easy. No.

That all said, leaving the system the way it is also doesn’t work. What we saw on Super Bowl Sunday was a failure, regardless of who you were rooting for. When there are myriad questions regarding the calls, to the extent that they overshadow the outcome, then you have an image problem. And image, as Andre Agassi will remind us, is everything.

How To Fix the Problem

So…

Did you know that last year in the Big Ten - and in most all college games - every single play was reviewed? Every single play.

Sure, there weren’t coaches throwing flags on the field, but there were three guys sitting in a booth watching the same plays that every fan sees, with the option of buzzing the ref and saying, “Hold on, we need 20 seconds to make sure you got it right.”

Most of the time, they said, “Good call. Play ball.” But other times, they buzzed the ref, and said, “No, the pass was incomplete, place the ball on the 30 yard line, it’s 3rd down.”

Problem solved, and a ref never had to shove his head into a peep hole. Why in the current NFL is a ref forced to review what retired refs sitting up in a booth could do in less than 25 seconds?

When your solution involves a beeper, you know your problems aren’t that bad. The NFL should party like it’s 1985, get some beepers for their boys, and not only speed up the game, but quit forcing refs to overturn their own calls. Talk about subjective.

Not only is our current system unfair to the fans, it’s unfair to the refs. If they make what they wonder might be a bad call, they are lambasted by coaches who have to throw a red flag, which is about as archaic as the Roman emperor giving a thumbs up or thumbs down. Then, they have to decide themselves whether to eat their pride, and overturn the call, or simply state that evidence doesn’t support the overturning of a call.

O.J. didn’t get to sit on his own jury. Why does Bill Leavy have to decide on the righteousness of his own decisions?

The fact is, the college replay system is so vastly superior to the NFL’s that it’s farcical to continue with what we have in place now.

Sure, there might be fewer commercial breaks for the NFL because the replays wouldn’t guarantee a five-minute halt, but there would also be fewer lost viewers who gag while John Madden describes his own assessment of the play.

“And BOOM, the ball comes out before his knee goes BANG, and hits the turf. WHAM!”

That’s not a bad trade-off. And Milton Friedman loves a good trade.

In this instance, the NFL should embrace free trade - at least the free trade of ideas - and do more to help their refs with efficient, non-subjective replays, and keep them away from coaches with red rags. Since when should coaches have to actually become accountable for the referees mistakes?

Lastly, if you want to add pass interference to the list of reviewable offenses, why not? As we stated earlier, the guys in the booth can do the review in less than 30 seconds, and what can become a 50-yard bad call now becomes an afterthought.

The ref won’t even have to leave the middle of the field.

Fixing a Grieving Seattle

Not only should poor Seattle feel slighted by the refs, the journalistic community hasn’t done them much service.

How many times do we have to read about their mourning fans with phrases like “tears as common as Seattle raindrops,” and “headaches as big as lattes?” I mean, can’t we do better than this?

Seattle is merely a city feeling the shaft. Nothing more. And why not? Not only that, they are trying to level with the NFL and say, okay, this is a problem, we are the brunt of that problem, but let’s fix it.

It reminds me of the part of High Fidelity (filmed in Chicago!) when John Cusack tries to appeal to his ex-girlfriend, Catherine Zeta-Jones, by standing in the rain and screaming up to her window, “We can work it out … you f**king b***h!”

Heartwarming stuff.

I think the Seahawks fans can work it out with the NFL, but mostly, with themselves, and to do that, mostly by concentrating on next season.

My sister Sarah lives in Seattle. Out on a visit to the city some six months ago, we decided to beat a slight hangover with a jog. The city had been experiencing about a month in a row with nary a drop of rain, and sure enough, as we rounded Green Lake, out of nowhere, a cloud rolled in so quickly it should have been a cheap prop for a high school play, and began dumping rain on us.

Cold rain.

Sarah smiled and said, “Well, I brought my card, lets go have a beer instead.”

Huh?

She then leaned over, pulled her debit card from her sock, and we proceeded to turn our 3-minute jog into a session at the bar that was roughly a block away.

Very resourceful.

The city of Seattle should do the same thing right about now. Enjoy the beauty of what the season was, far more than 40 days of sunshine, but now, with the rain again present, do what you always do: find a diversion. Right now that diversion should involve re-signing Steve Hutchinson and hopefully Shaun Alexander, another good draft, and making plans to travel to Miami next year for Super Bowl XLI.

With your luck, you’ll be playing the Dolphins.

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