Should NFL Referees Be Allowed to "Dictate the Pace of the Game?"

They outright say as much in the other quotes.

Basically telling refs not to allow teams to play "too fast."

Every team gets 25 seconds from the time the ball is placed or 40 seconds from the end of the play.

What's the issue?

ETA: defensively I see a problem

the SEC refs used to do this back in the early 00s to ensure a slower, defensive game. Richt would always bitch about it

The nature of football is that the officials have to retrieve and spot the ball on every play, move first down markers on many plays, etc. This takes some amount of time. Football is not a continuous action game. As long as the officials are not going unreasonably slow, there is no reason they should run as fast as they can after every play (just because a team wishes to go warp speed) and they are just saying they aren't going to do that. They are going to go at the customary pace to perform the necessary between play functions. To that extent officials necessarily do and should dictate the pace of the game within reason.

It's not they are arbitrarily deciding when to slow down the game.

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"We're going through our normal ball mechanics, we aren't going to rush [unless] it's in the two minute drill."

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Doesn't really make any sense to me.

Why is it okay with 2 minutes left but not with 12?

If a team wants to play fast, it's within the rules for them to do so. The refs shouldn't be deciding what tempo a team plays.

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Pereira, who saw Kelly's offense in action when he briefly oversaw Pac-12 officials two years ago, said Kelly was a coach who lobbied for officials to be more mobile so they could run with the Ducks and get the ball down on the line of scrimmage more quickly, giving the team's center the chance to get a snap off just seconds later. "In the NFL, I don't see him having the juice to persuade crews to work faster," Pereira said. "In fact, I know he doesn't."

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In the NFL, however, referees are required to change balls when a play dies out of bounds or when there's an incomplete pass. That can add five to 10 seconds between plays. Another source of slowness: the referee who spots the ball in the NFL must be behind the deepest offensive back before the offense can snap the ball.

In at least one collegiate conference, the referee has to only be two steps away from the ball for the offense to snap it. The difference between these approaches can add up to 10 seconds in some instances.

The NFL's policy on substitutions won't help the Eagles, either. If an offensive team substitutes a player, Blandino said, it doesn't matter how quickly that player gets to the line of scrimmage—the defense will also be allowed to make its substitutions. NFL referees, he said, will go so far as standing over the ball to make sure the defenders have time to get in the game.

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Why change the rules of the game with 2 minutes to go?

They seem to operate quickly with 2 minutes to go, and are outright saying they won't operate that quickly except then.

It doesn't make any sense.

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They seem to operate quickly with 2 minutes to go, and are outright saying they won't operate that quickly except then

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No, that's not what they are saying. They are saying Chip Kelly's offense won't be able to operate as quickly as it did in college and that Chip Kelly won't have any influence on the pace the refs operate.

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Blandino said that in his meeting with Philadelphia, Kelly didn't show any "overconcern" about these changes. "They had questions about what the parameters were going to be," Blandino said of the Eagles. "It's going to be different from college." Blandino said he didn't sense pushback from teams. He said he wanted every team aware of the mechanics that take place before a snap.

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Doesn't seem like their is any concern about playing uptempo, just clarification on the processes of the refs.

The Patriots seem to be fine with the pace of the officials when they want to play uptempo.