Gas2No99 Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Senior VP of officiating Al Riveron to return after bumpy 1st season The NFL will retain senior vice president of officiating Al Riveron for the 2018 season, a league spokesman told ESPN's Adam Schefter. Riveron had a bumpy first season in the job after replacing Dean Blandino, who resigned to join Fox Sports. Riveron's promotion coincided with an NFL initiative to give final say on replay reviews to its New York-based officiating department. The structure was created with the Blandino's skills in mind; he had spent three seasons preparing in the league's command center and had been a part of the replay department for 10 years before that. Riveron, a former referee, hired former replay official Russell Yurk to assist him as vice president of replay. But Blandino and another former officiating chief, Mike Pereira, who is also an analyst for Fox Sports, were at times highly critical of their decisions. They questioned whether Riveron and Yurk had veered away from the standard of supporting the call on the field unless there is "clear and obvious" evidence of a mistake. The issue came to a head in Week 16, when Riveron and Yurk reversed a touchdown reception by the Buffalo Bills' Kelvin Benjamin late in the first half of an eventual 37-16 loss to the New England Patriots. A frame-by-frame analysis indicated that Benjamin might not have secured possession until after he stepped out of bounds, but Bills owner Terry Pegula was among those who said replay was never intended to make such precise distinctions. Not everyone in the NFL disagreed with Riveron's approach, and some thought he could smooth out the drama with better public explanations. Regardless, the NFL spokesman told Schefter that Riveron will return with the support of commissioner Roger Goodell and the rest of the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleedin Green Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 The NFL has absolutely no clue what they're doing anymore. When the two guys who preceded him are openly saying that he is getting the basic fundamentals of NFL officiating wrong, that's a major freaking problem. This entire role is supposed to be the completely impartial, objective evaluator, and yet all of his calls seem to be based on best guess and his own personal gut instinct. If that's going to be the case, the league would be better served eliminating reviews all together, at least ensuring that these seat of your pants decisions are being made live, in real time, by the guys who are actually there. Not saying that would go well at all, but this current situation is just about the worst they could do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYJ37/12 Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 disaster, but this is not surprising given the current state of the NFL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerfish Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 As I said at the time just an awful decision to take away the reviews from the refs on the field. They did that in the CFL about 3 years before the NFL and the results were predicable. One man is one mans opinion considering many of these very inexact rules. The actual refs have a much better feel for the game and a much better chance to apply the inconclusive rule to a replay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
faba Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 They might as well put Robert KRaft in charge anyway make it official Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge4Tide Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 We know of at least one team that is happy to hear this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Brown Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 19 minutes ago, Bleedin Green said: The NFL has absolutely no clue what they're doing anymore. When the two guys who preceded him are openly saying that he is getting the basic fundamentals of NFL officiating wrong, that's a major freaking problem. This entire role is supposed to be the completely impartial, objective evaluator, and yet all of his calls seem to be based on best guess and his own personal gut instinct. If that's going to be the case, the league would be better served eliminating reviews all together, at least ensuring that these seat of your pants decisions are being made live, in real time, by the guys who are actually there. Not saying that would go well at all, but this currently situation is just about the worst they could do. This 100%!! The review rule was set up to stop what happened with the Jets and Seattle and the Jets scoring a TD with a helmet; not subjective substitutions for value judgments that happened on the field. It also was outrageous when as here all the calls seemed to benefit a team like the Pats; which gave them home field advantage throughout the playoffs! Players and fans across the nation now think that the NFL is rigged and then NFL doesn't think it is a problem that tells you all you need to know about the NFL and integrity. It is a joke! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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