Last week, the league sent a video to all head coaches and General Managers that included examples of how to properly sack the quarterback. Titans coach Mike Vrabel replied -- and used the “reply all” feature to do so.
Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports that Vrabel, a member of the NFL’s Competition Committee, responded to the email from NFL senior V.P. of officiating administration Perry Fewell with this message: “I appreciate the time and energy that goes into these videos, but I suggest we devote every minute of our officiating departments time ensuring our officiating crews are as well trained in the clarifications we worked to create in the off season and that each crew is as consistent as possible. Thank you.”
Although there was at least one truly accidental email sent this week by a fairly prominent league figure to many more people than the intended recipient (it will be interesting to see whether that one becomes the basis for a Sunday Splash! report, too), Schefter reports that it’s believed Vrabel’s email was sent intentionally.
Good for Vrabel. Others surely feel the same way, but they won’t say so publicly or prominently for fear of the reactions and potential reprisals. At times like this, people who care about the good of the game need to let the stewards of the game hear it, loudly and clearly.
That’s ultimately what the key football operations employees of the league office are. Stewards of the game. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a temporary assignment. But it’s a very important one.
The integrity of the game should take precedence over all others considerations -- especially the league’s short-term profit motives. For example, the league’s business interests favor having as many prominent quarterbacks as possible healthy and able to play, in as many games as possible. That helps keep the ratings high. The effort to make that happen, however, potentially undermines the game, if it entails (for example) overly sensitive application of the rules and a clumsy and unpersuasive effort to circle the wagons around mistakes.
Through it all, the main goal should be to craft the best possible rules and to ensure that the officials are in the best possible position to apply them accurately and consistently. The best way to accomplish that would be with full-time officials, who don’t work other full-time jobs.
The league has resisted this approach because, frankly, the league doesn’t want to have to pay what it will take to get officials to give up their other gigs. But the league absolutely should do it. The new money-for-nothing revenue from multiple gambling partnerships would easily pay for the expense of it, many times over.
Despite short-term profit motives, the long-term interests of the sport cry out for doing everything possible to ensure accurate and consistent officiating. As explained in Playmakers (How the NFL Really Works, and Doesn’t) , the age of legalized gambling means that the sport is always one major controversy away from experiencing serious governmental scrutiny, from a legislative, administrative, and/or judicial standpoint.
If the league wants to remain in full control of its business interests, the league should exercise proper control over its business -- including most importantly the officiating of its games. Over the past week, and specifically through the handling of the controversy regarding roughing the passer penalties, it’s clear that the league has lost control.