Whispering Sweet Nothings from NY to the Zebras

Yup

I'll never forget the sixth game of the NBA championship in Sacramento between the Kings and Lakers where the league pulled out the stops to ensure a 7th game (Kings were up 3-2 in the series). Lakers won a title they didn't deserve when the Kings couldn't win a 5-on-8 game.

Everyone remembers that Lakers/Kings series, but to paraphrase Packerboi, was it the kiss of death for the NBA? Obviously not. FIFA couldn't be more corrupt or more popular. Ditto for the IOC. MLB has had major steroids and gambling scandals and they seem to still be going strong. Back to the NBA, there was even that ref who got caught red handed gambling on games he was reffing. Which means if they caught one there were probably more. Did people stop watching the NBA?

Why is the NFL so delicate or sacred that it couldn't withstand a cheating scandal?  Cough, Patriots, cough. It isn't. Is it that NFL fans are just made of such superior moral fiber that they would never put up with suggestion of impropriety compared to fans of other sports who all seem to turn a blind eye to the blatant shenanigans?  Again I say obviously not.

People will turn off when the game becomes too boring, not because of any assumed ethical compromises.

Entertainment is the opiate of the masses. And I'm an unrepentant addict.

From the title I thought this was a post about psychosis, but it's about an illness that isn't responsive to medications.

Kings/Lakers and Bucks/Sixers a year apart is probably the closest thing to an obvious fixing of officiating in professional sports.  

It it was made even worse when an NBA official ended up being indicted for conspiracy. 

There is always the risk given how closely the lines are getting blurred with gambling and fantasy sports and at some point it would not surprise me if the NFL was impacted 

Tschmack posted:

Kings/Lakers and Bucks/Sixers a year apart is probably the closest thing to an obvious fixing of officiating in professional sports.  

It it was made even worse when an NBA official ended up being indicted for conspiracy. 

There is always the risk given how closely the lines are getting blurred with gambling and fantasy sports and at some point it would not surprise me if the NFL was impacted 

You mean taking 27 free throws in the 4th quarter of a tie game is suspicious?

From ESPN: Los Angeles made 21 of 27 from the line while Sacramento converted 7 of 9 in the fourth quarter alone.

It doesn't get talked about as much but the 2000 WCF game 7 between Portland and LA was really bad as well.  

This is why I hate the Lakers.  They were basically handed two championships by the refs and they didn't need the help.  

All the above examples are nothing when compared to the NCAA Mens Division I Basketball Championship this last season.   Game was totally stolen from Wisconsin. 

On one hand.....this makes sense.  There have been too many blatant screw ups this year in prime time that have directly affected the outcome of games.  No surprise the league is pissed that the discussion the next morning is of officiating, not the game.  

On the other hand.....this is a slippery slope.  Getting the clock right or the batted ball call right is one thing.  But are they going to insert themselves in the facemask call on Rodgers?  Or the false start call on Jacksonville on the game winning FG against the Ravens?  Or a huge pass interference call at the end of the fourth quarter?   When does it stop?  

I just wish the league would adopt the college way of doing it.  NFL officiating is a joke though - no excuse not to have full time officials right now.  Too much money and too much exposure to save money on officiating.  

I wouldn't argue against FT refs at this point also. I can't see where their 'offseason' should be that much different than a team. Take a nice, extended vacation after February, report for training by mid-March, and so on.
I'd hope they even watch film much as a team does before and during the season, and their grades should be reported by bspn and the like.

The above is assuming, of course, that there is still some integrity in the game, and the refs aren't used as pawns in a scripted 'storyline' like the WWE.

What should they get paid if they were full time? They currently make 180,000 per year for about 20 games. MLB umpires make from 120,000 to 350,000 for 162. 

As long as I'm dreaming...
Have minimum vet salaries, and bonus availability for performance. The better the grade, the bigger the bonus. Also, the highest graded refs would make up the crews for the playoffs, so they have the opportunity for additional salary/bonus.

I still haven't answered your question, but if every ref makes the same salary, or if that's a minimum, $180K is a fine starting point. Their union and league would have to negotiate the numbers.

One series the Jazz vs. the Jordan Bulls. What farce the officiating was. The NBA has done this repeatedly over the decades.

The two ingredients for a good official are good judgement and practice using judgement at game speed. Making officials full-time sounds like a good idea but where are they going to get games to practice on, that they do not already get? I just question what they can do with them that will make them significantly better. 

As fans...all we want is what actually happens on the field to be called correctly.

If we start having more games called like the fail mary, then yes I could see people turning their backs on the NFL.

It will take multiple screw ups though, not just one

They could consider having younger, fitter officials.  Maybe they have started trending that way, but it sure seems like a bunch of old white guys out there running around.  This is a much more physically demanding job than umpiring baseball in terms of needing to be able to get up and down the field quickly, as well as being in the middle of large, fast athletes.  That would be a start to at least have some of them be able to keep up (and hold up) with the speed of the game.

I suppose the eventual alternative will be a hundred cameras connected to the referee mainframe. Completely remove the (on field) human factor. I think it could already be done but would obviously be very expensive to implement on a league wide scale. Plus the PR backlash. As much as people hate the reffing there would still be many who would balk at removing all control from humans.

Of course the reality of that scenario is that there would be flags for multiple infractions on every play. There would have to be filters of some sort built in to compensate for the fact that imperfect humans were still down on the field. 

That could be a slippery slope. Once the refs are replaced it's only a matter of time.

Regarding the Kings/Lakers game 6. That has been and probably always will be the greatest example of "WTF is really going on here?" The Kings shot 25 foul shots in that game. The Lakers shot 27 foul shots IN THE FOURTH QUARTER!

Those that really understand the game say there are easily 8 fouls called against the Kings in the 4th that simply weren't fouls. On any level. Then there was Kobe running through a Bibby screen and blatantly delivering an elbow to Bibby's nose that drew blood. It happened with 12 seconds left in the game with the Kings down 1. Foul called on Bibby. 

After the game Ed Rush called ref Ted Berhardt and asked him how he thought the game went. 

Ted,  "I'd rather not say" Ed, "Tell me Ted", Ted, "I'd rather not say", Ed, "TELL ME TED!", Ted, "I think my partners sucked tonight and I hate them for what they did tonight"

Ed, "That's what I thought you'd say" Click. 

Even with all the BS in that game. The final score in game 6 was 106-102 Los Angeles. The better team did not win that series. 

The point made that leagues will survive and go on is accurate. The bigger point missed is what it does to players and fans of teams like Sacramento. If you were a King player in 2002 you probably wonder why you play the game. If you are a King fan you wonder why you support a league that rips your heart out and doesn't really care. 

The Kings were never the same after that game. 13 years later they still suck. The owners went broke. The franchise has almost moved twice that I know of. All for what ostensibly was nothing more than a shortsighted ratings money grab by the NBA. That's sad. 

What Chillijon said. It's never been the same in Sacramento.

I don't think the issue with the refs in NFL is about being younger and fitter.  It is about judgement and commitment to the position (full time refs).  While they may be putting more time in than ever studying complex rules, etc., they are not full time employees and I'm pretty sure most have "day time jobs".  I think the status of the referees and their preparation for games is in the right direction, but it needs to go further. 

I wonder what the game would look like if every player knew that there was at least one set of eyes on each player for every play. That is all the job is. Each player is watched at that fouls would not be tolerated.

What happens now is that what is a hold on one play is not a hold the next play (take your pick of the infraction). That has got to be maddening on so many levels. Because of that, they do it thinking they have they has just a likely a shot at it not being called as being called.

If they knew exactly how they had to play it (clean), the game would look very different.

Green Crustacean posted:

I don't think the issue with the refs in NFL is about being younger and fitter.  It is about judgement and commitment to the position (full time refs).  While they may be putting more time in than ever studying complex rules, etc., they are not full time employees and I'm pretty sure most have "day time jobs".  I think the status of the referees and their preparation for games is in the right direction, but it needs to go further. 

The problem is that the way to get better is to practice making calls at game speed. Going full-time is not going to get them any more real experience than they already get because there are no football games in the offseason. Losing NFL Europe hurt because that was a chance for officials to get more practice. 

Not necessary to have every official be full-time but at least the head official should be, and I'd suggest another 2-3 guys as well.  If there are 16 games per week and you have 4 full time officials per crew, that's 64 full-time guys.  At $250k each and let's say they're making $125k now as part time,  that's an additional $8m per season for 4 full-time officials per crew.   Divided by 32 teams, that's $250k per team.  Ridiculous to say it's based on money.  Ridiculous to say they can't find 64 guys that want to go full time.  Literally not a single excuse  not to have part of each crew go full-time.  

Take the ref out of it