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Editor's note: Soon after the publication of this column, there were unconfirmed
reports that the NFL and its regular officials were close to an agreement that would bring
back the regular officials in time for this weekend's games.
Think back to the days when a substitute teacher walked into your high school
classroom. Remember the sense of freedom everyone felt?
This teacher doesn’t know you, the rules or whether there was an assignment due
that day. The substitute doesn’t know if you’re in the proper seat or if the
quiz is supposed to be an open-book test.
In that situation, the students usurp a lot of power because they know a lot more about
that specific environment than the substitute teacher knows.
That same dynamic is playing itself out in the NFL right now.
No disrespect intended to the replacement officials because they’ve done a fair
job the past couple of weeks. But they’re simply not qualified to call NFL games week
in and week out. If you’ve watched the officials, you probably haven’t seen too
many glaring errors. That’s not necessarily because the replacement referees are
competent.
They understand the game. They have experience officiating at lower levels.
They’ve been in the heat of battle. They know what they’re doing. The problem is
that they don’t have as much knowledge about the standards and practices of the NFL
as the players do.
The players know how to bend the rules and how to flat-out cheat better than any other
football players on the planet. The replacement officials are catching all the obvious
stuff and doing a professional job of managing the game. But they’re missing the
subtle stuff.
That’s why there have been fewer penalties called.
Professional officials have as much experience in the league (or more) than
professional players. They’ve seen it all, and they know what to allow and what
should draw a flag.
There’s holding on every NFL play, but the professional officials have developed
the same rhythm as the players for what constitutes a gross violation. So when holding
does get called, there’s rarely any argument. The player knows he did it, and he
probably knows he went over the line.
What we’ve seen from the replacement officials thus far is that they’re not
qualified to call all the little nip-and-tuck, grab-and-release stuff that happens every
play. It either happens too quickly for them to catch, too discreetly for them to notice
or too often for them to tell the difference between a good play and a bad play.
When I came into the NFL as a rookie running back in 1991, I spent the first two years
of my career learning how to hold. There’s definitely an art to it. Let’s say
you’re the fullback leading the play around the tight end to block the
"Sam" linebacker. You want to be under control as you come around the corner and
then strike him with your hands and helmet. During that strike, you get your hands inside
to grab his chest plate.
If you miss his chest plate, get as much of his jersey as you can. He’s running
laterally, trying to contain the ball carrier. You run laterally with him.
What’s really happening is that he’s running away from you and you’re
holding onto him for dear life. But if you keep your hands in tight and keep your feet
moving, it ends up looking as if you’re actually pushing him toward the sideline
rather than being dragged.
When the tailback finally cuts behind your block and the linebacker tries to stop and
change direction, that’s when you keep driving your legs and push him out of bounds.
If you don’t develop a talent for holding, you’ll never make it in the NFL.
Defensive players do it too. When a defensive lineman is getting double-teamed on a run
play, he learns to hold onto both of those players so they can’t combo up to the
linebacker. Linebackers learn to grab onto running backs coming out on pass routes.
Cornerbacks learn to hold, jostle and lean against wide receivers to keep them from
getting a rhythm.
If the replacements are still here when the weather gets cold, will they know how much
Vaseline is too much on an offensive lineman? See, the linemen would love to lube up their
jerseys with Vaseline to keep defenders from grabbing them, but that’s illegal.
But on a cold day, Vaseline on their arms helps keep linemen warm. So they slather up
their arms, and when a defender rushes, his hands will invariably touch their arms before
reaching their jerseys. So now the defender is putting Vaseline on the offensive
linemen’s jerseys.
Mission accomplished.
Everyone cheats, at every position, on every play, in every situation.
Replacement officials can’t be expected to keep pace with this level of subterfuge
because they haven’t dealt with it on this level every day. The NFL is a business
that focuses solely on results, so players have a powerful incentive to get good at
cheating because it helps achieve the result they’re seeking and helps them keep
their jobs.
In the dispute between the NFL and its officials, I can’t say who’s right.
There’s merit to both arguments. But I can say unequivocally that the NFL needs its
professional officials back on the field. Right now, the contests are being called by
substitute teachers, meaning the students are running the classroom.
Every week the replacements are out there, the integrity of the game suffers a little
more.
Reggie Rivers played for the Denver Broncos from 1991 to ’96. His Web site is
located at http://www.reggierivers.com |
