The NFL Has Fired 3 Referees, But Making Their Officials Full Time Should Really Be Addressed

Eric Canha. Shutterstock Images.

NY Post- The NFL appears to be cracking down on shoddy refereeing.

The league fired three officials in what footballzebras.com described as vice president of officiating training and development Ramon George “advancing accountability among the officiating ranks,” following a postseason that included several notable referee controversies.

In a deviation from normal standards, though, the referees received soft landings, being sent to college football power conferences due to George’s maneuvering, per the report.

Dismissed officials reportedly had no such landing spot previously.

Carter served as an alternate official during the wild-card round this past season, with footballzebras.com speculating it may have been due to injuries, while DeLorenzo did not earn any postseason assignments and Richardson could not referee in the postseason due to his freshman status.

These moves come as George has pushed for using “data as a performance guide,” a source told the outlet.

We call this progress. For what feels like forever, NFL refs have been scrutinized as being bad. From famous missed calls, to what feels like favoritism to certain teams (ahem … The Chiefs) there's been a ton of issues with the men in the stripes. While there should be way more accountability for these refs, as in they should have to speak at a press conference after the game, this is at least a start for showing they are aware of the performance of some of their officials and are putting in action that removes them from the game. 

While this is a good start, the real problem at hand here is these refs being part time, which has always been weird to me. The league generates billions of dollars, and is only getting richer. The league has found a way to dominate the sports calendar year over year, from the actual season, into free agency, into minicamps, into the draft, into the schedule release, into camp, and back to the preseason. The NFL is a year round storyline. Turn on any sports network at any point in the year and they are bound to find an NFL story or debate in the time slot. Which makes you wonder, why wouldn't they just make the refs full time? They have the money to do it. It would allow the refs to have to devote more time to the game, whether it's conferences, training sessions, or whatever. The refs would only get better. Again, this is a decent start to a massive problem in the league, and we can only hope that more moves are coming down the pike.