Rest assured because we now know one aspect of the NFL game is beyond reproach, the league’s officiating.
Chuckle if you want, but that’s what the NFL signified when it finalized the 2016 officiating roster on Thursday.
Here’s why:
Not only were all 17 referees brought back from last season but 121 of 122 officials from ’15 are back to give it another try come September, not exactly the similar kind of turnover one might expect on the average 53-man unit around the league.
You don’t have to be a gumshoe in the mold of Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot to cobble together what went on here. There were the 122 officials that were active last season and the league confirmed it added only three first-year Zebras from the college ranks among a group of 124 this time around, side judge Alan Eck, who arrives from the Big 12, head lineman Jerod Phillips, also a Big 12 alum, and Ramon George, formerly of Conference USA.
Those adept in Lumosity’s brain-training exercises can probably decipher that 122 last year with three new officials in a crew of 124 means exactly one official from ’15 isn’t going to be back. And no, former head lineman George Hayward isn’t the most incompetent worker since the Germans fired Homer Simpson from the nuclear power plant, he retired.
The turnover in the rest of the NFL from year to year is rather significant.
In fact the league is supposed to be the ultimate bottom-line business and for the most part that thesis is spot on.
Almost everything in professional football is based on performance from the general manager all the way down to the average coaching intern and of course the players themselves.
Future employment, meanwhile, is based on competition and doing your job to a level that’s at least a little bit better than the potential alternative.
Except in the realm officiating.
A poorly thought of lot to begin with, by all accounts the NFL’s officials had one of their worst seasons a year ago, at least in the eyes of the casual fan who can’t seem to discern what a catch is in Dean Blandino’s over-legislated environment and have a better understanding of the Pythagorean theorem than the pass-interference rules.
But as far the Grand Poobah of officiating is concerned, his underlings are rock solid, so much so that their job status is as concrete as the average professor with tenure at your local liberal arts college.
In other words it’s impossible to get rid of these guys, no matter what happens on Sundays (or Mondays, Thursdays and the occasional Saturday late in the season).
Yet this remains a profession where decisions on game days from these officials can literally make and break careers, affecting everyone from coaches all the way to their support staffs, the players themselves obviously, and the families of those affected, all of whom may have to pack up and try to find another home if things go poorly.
Referees remain the only ones in and around professional football that are not held accountable for their performance. Unless you consider a poor grade and the absence of a postseason berth equivalent to a pink slip.
-John McMullen is a national football columnist for FanRagSports.com and TodaysPigskin.com. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @jfmcmullen — Also catch John every day at 4:05 ET on ESPN South Jersey and check @JFMcMullen for John’s upcoming appearances on YAHOO! Sports Radio, FOX Sports Radio, as well as dozens of local radio stations across North America.
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