There is a new rule in the NHL that says that the goalie is not allowed to touch the puck in a clearly-marked area in each corner of the rink. I swear to god that I have seen, several times, goalies obviously violating that rule right in front of the referee. The only explanation I can think of is that the ref momentarily forgot about that new rule (and probably the goalie did also).
Refs seem to give a lot of leeway on follow-throughs on shots and passes. They also won’t call it if they’re not in a good position to see exactly where the puck is if it’s close.
True, but I have seen cases where the goalie went right to the center of the area to receive the puck, just like they did in the old days when it was legal. The ref completely ignored it, just like they did when it was legal. I’m sure both goalie and ref forgot that he’s not supposed to do that this year.
The problem I have with this whole mess is that Morelli was on the headset for at least 5 minutes, if not longer. Isn’t there a 2 minute rule for replay? I know it’s ignored all the time, but after one review, 99% of viewers seemed to figure it out. He was talking to SOMEONE on that headset. I would conclude that a discussion of the rule in question occured. Morelli obviously had the support of the replay officials in the booth.
Maybe not. Perhaps a better way to do this is to have the booth replay official responsible for the overturning of these plays. At least the ref would be removed from blame. He’d just be the messenger.
Can you imagine what would have happened to this guy if the Steelers would have lost? Are refs influenced by the home crowd because they want to leave the stadium alive? If so, the NFL needs to address this as well. No ref should be subjected to vandalism or put into fear over a football game. But there are some real looney tunes out there, and a lot of gamblers, so I can’t believe it hasn’t happened before.
I don’t know about any conspiracy, but it did appear that he took an incredible amount of time to decide this. It doesn’t take a stretch to imagine that anyone not a Steeler fan would have figured the game to be over and changed the station, or left the bar they were in (or stayed and drowned their sorrows). Part of me kept wondering what in the hell he was talking about with the guys upstairs. Even if Morelli didn’t know the rule, surely someone in the replay booth would be expected to help him out. Perhaps those guys should be the “experts”.
I never heard the hockey rule with the goalie touching the puck in the corners. What’s the reason for this one? To keep goalies from being targets of body checks?
That’s a new rule this year. The idea is so that the goalie can’t easily clear the puck out of the zone after it’s been dumped in. In theory this should lead to more scoring chances. Bodychecking the goalie has been illegal for several years now.
- Keep fresh on rules changes.
- Take (and hopefully pass) regular online quizzes concerning the rules.
- The NFL could send them filmstrips each week of some of the more challenging calls that come up, and they could get online on a NFL referees’ message board and debate the proper calls.
How big is the officiating crew for an NFL game - six people? There are up to 16 games each weekend; you’d need 96 refs. Pay them each $50K a year to be a really good NFL ref, and that’ll run the league about $5 million. Is it worth that much to the NFL to have quality officiating? I could be wrong, but I’d think it would be.
While it’s not exactly the same, according to this article, the refs are sent home from the game with a DVD of the broadcast and get weekly report cards from the league. The gain points for correct calls and lose points for missed calls.
*Mike Pereira is head of NFL officials
First off, those three things cannot possibly take the 35 hours a week they’re not working a game. Second, what makes you think $50K per year is enough to pay someone full time to be a ref? This site says they already make between $25K and $70K part time. You ARE talking about getting the best and brightest, right? $50K is going to get you a high school football coach. Think about at least doubling that, maybe more, to get a highly talented person out there once a week.
Let’s look at the number of times officials make calls that are inconsistent with the rule book… Hm… I know of one. That’s about it. Many questionable judgement calls, for sure, but not too many caused by a straight misunderstanding of the rules.