Changes coming to the structure around NFL refs, including a training program

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A veteran referee turns a routine touchback into a touchdown and reverses his decision only after two alternate officials storm the field to talk him out of it. A questionable interpretation of a new rule stalls a fourth-quarter drive. Centralized replay fails to review a winning touchdown for pass interference. A helmet-to-helmet hit on a starting quarterback goes unaddressed.

Officiating madness during the NFL's wild-card playoff weekend reinforced the league's urgent need to "look at everything" involved in what has been a trying season, as executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent promised he would do last month. League sources expect a significant offseason reckoning that will impact the department's leadership as well as on-field personnel. At the same time, owners must decide whether to scrap or adjust pass interference review, a process that has dinged the league's credibility with its confounding application.

"It's pretty simple," said ESPN officiating analyst John Parry, who retired last spring after 19 seasons as an NFL official. "The league needs to commit resources and money to this. It needs to commit to the resurrection of the officiating department, the staff, the training and the recruiting. There has to be a commitment of people and money to improve it at every level."

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Al Riveron is completing his third season as the league's senior vice president of officiating and, similar to a coach or general manager of a disappointing team, has been subject to rumors about his future. According to sources, some in the league office have advocated a campaign to lure back Riveron's predecessor, Dean Blandino, who works as a Fox Sports officiating analyst as well as a consultant to the NCAA and the XFL.

The current expectation is that Riveron will have a place in the NFL next season but amid a restructured leadership team around and likely above him. The league has already committed to hiring a vice president of training and recruitment, as part of a new collective bargaining agreement it reached with the NFL Referees Association (NFLRA) last fall, and has focused on referee Walt Anderson as a top candidate for that role if he decides to leave the field after this season.

That would give the NFL three executive-level officiating jobs, which also includes the vice president of replay role held by Russell Yurk. There have been discussions about other positions as well, but the primary decision Vincent and commissioner Roger Goodell must make is whether -- and whom -- to add above Riveron in the organizational chart.

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Parry experienced this season from a new perspective, watching every game on television as well as broadcasting ESPN's Monday Night Football. There is little doubt, he said, that "there has been a decrease in the skill level of officiating." His sense, based on two decades in the league, is that the number of preventable missed calls has spiked, many based on mechanical mistakes that can be traced in part to the league's minimal training program.

"To me, the big game-changing errors have increased," Parry said. "And I see that from watching every game on Sunday. I've used the term that officials at times to me seem paralyzed in making a decision, making a judgment. And inside there it starts with mechanics, being in the right position to make the right call."

Last Saturday, for example, referee Tony Corrente's botched kickoff ruling started when he was out of position. He wound up in front of Houston Texans returner DeAndre Carter instead of behind him, where the referee is typically stationed. "So he sort of gave the return man an invitation to catch the kick and toss him the ball," Parry said.

Carter did just that, without taking the official step of kneeling for a touchback. Corrente stepped aside, let the ball drop to the ground and awarded the Buffalo Bills a touchdown after one of their players fell on it. Most referees consider a tossed ball to be a signal that the returner has given himself up. But even if Carter didn't intend to give himself up, his toss should have been ruled an illegal forward pass and a safety rather than a touchdown. Corrente not only suffered a lapse of judgment but he also applied the wrong rule.

"I'm watching that and wondering, 'What was [Corrente] thinking? How did he get to that?'" Parry said. "His head was spinning."

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Young or old, NFL officials are supported by minimal training or continuing education. They receive occasional video instruction from two league trainers, but the NFLRA made the issue a central point of its recent CBA negotiation. In addition to a training executive, the NFLRA pushed the league hard to hire a swath of recently retired officials to beef up training practices.

"That's what we were really interested in and still are," NFLRA executive director Scott Green explained. "We said, 'Let's get somebody in there who is focused on working with young officials. We were and are hoping that this will be a fairly robust program. Everybody agreed it was needed, and we would certainly like to see that kicked off and underway sooner rather than later."

The CBA also provided for a reinstitution of the league's full-time program, through which the NFL hired about 20% of its officials to expand their duties in the offseason following the 2017 and 2018 seasons. The league put it on hold last summer. And Green said he has received no indication of its imminent return.

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