It's time for the owners to take charge

The NFL has an officiating problem. It's time for the NFL to fix the problem.

And by the NFL I don't mean the league office. I mean the owners.

It's their game. Your sport. They have invested billions of dollars in the sport and continue to do so. You are the sport. The entire concept of a league office with a commissioner carrying out his orders provides a large shield behind which the owners can individually hide.

It's time to stop hiding. Governance will only improve if owners take the process into their own hands.

This is not a problem per se for civil servants. The middle-aged men and women who do this work do their best as they maneuver through and around the gladiators without protective pads or helmets. Things happen at lightning speed and officers make the best judgments possible with the naked eye and in real time.

There are examples every week. On Sunday night, several examples of terrible calls occurred in the final turn of the game, from a terrible, unnecessary rough call for a hit on Patrick Mahomes, to a terrible non-call of pass interference, to the final application of a non-existent Hail Mary exception the pass interference rules.

The incumbent function must be dismantled and rethought. We listed at the end of October Five reasons the NFL won't do it: (1) equity; (2) laziness; (3) incompetence; (4) sell controversy; and (5) the lack of any urgency for change.

The urgency will come when Congress proposes it. Those who think this is fanfiction have either forgotten or never heard about the October 2009 congressional hearing. In that session, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith learned that if professional football didn't clean up its head trauma mess, Congress would do so.

The hearing sparked a revolution in player safety that is still ongoing. If Congress does the same thing when it comes to gambling, with an emphasis on shameful officiating practices, the League will do the same.

It's tempting to just wait for the cage to be rattled. This is not good for the game. For the integrity of the game. This term is used whenever the league office wants to protect it by punishing someone. It is never mentioned as a wish, a goal.

It should be. It is not a slogan to justify suspension or termination. It is a mission statement. When it comes to officiating, the mission fails.

As one head coach explained it to PFT on Monday, “It is.”[t]It's up to the owners to take charge.” The coach suggested removing Goodell, competition committee chairman Rich McKay and NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent from the equation entirely.

The coach also agrees that the league should “completely overhaul” the officiating process. For several years I have been saying that it must be demolished and rebuilt, taking into account all available technologies.

What the NFL needs to do – and what it will never do – is call Fox Sports rules analyst (and former NFL senior vice president) Dean Blandino and ask him to name his price. Blandino himself has said that the league does not adequately value vice president as an acting position. It is critical to the long-term success of the league and the short-term integrity of the game.

What would it take? What should it take with you? Given the importance of the job to the NFL and all of the game money the league is currently putting in its pockets, $10 million a year would be a fair price to pay to take on the referee role.

The inevitable scandal if major changes do not occur will cost much more.