Almost-former NFL senior vice president of officiating Dean Blandino is leaving just as the league was about to give final say on real-time replay from every game.
And after a moment of surprise, perhaps they’ve realized it might take more than one man to do the job.
According to Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com, the NFL has posted a new job which sounds like the guy who will be the eyes and face of replay, in addition to the vacancy Blandino’s creating by going to FOX.
The posting for the newly created vice president of replay and administration says that person will be responsible for “accuracy and consistency in all areas concerning in-game reviews and communication with [the] on-field officiating crew,” and said the job would require the “ability to make decisions in situations that are time sensitive and potentially public facing.”
That new title will report to the senior vice president of officiating, meaning they’re effectively splitting Blandino’s job in half.
Creating a new position does nothing to change the perception that centralizing replay was done with Blandino in particular in mind, and that his leaving left them in a state of pants somewhere other than up. And it also suggests that the lure of more money for less work was something Blandino was interested in, unless the league was offering to double his salary and we just haven’t heard about it.
It also sounds vaguely familiar, like a suggestion some wise person made recently. Who could that have been?