Former NFL referee Mike Carey will not be back on CBS this season, after he took significant criticism for his work as a rules analyst last season. But CBS thinks some of that criticism was unwarranted.
CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said Carey needed time to grow into his role, and the audience didn’t give Carey the time to grow.
“It takes some people a while to develop into good broadcasters, and the viewing public was not as patient as I thought they might be,” McManus said, via Neil Best of Newsday.
But nationally televised NFL games are the wrong place to grow into broadcasting. If Carey wasn’t ready for the job, CBS shouldn’t have put him on the air in front of tens of millions of viewers, who don’t want to be patient with an officiating analyst who’s consistently wrong.
It’s also worth noting that Mike Pereira, the former head of officiating who now does the same job for FOX that Carey did for CBS, didn’t need any time to develop into the job. Pereira has been consistently good at his job from Day One. That may be why McManus is open to the possibility of bringing in another officiating analyst.
“We have not found anybody for that job right now,” McManus said. “We’re not actively looking, but if we found somebody we would reinstitute that role.”
The key for CBS will be finding someone who’s ready to do the job on the first day, and doesn’t need time to grow into the role.
