I saw several articles last week calling for the National Football League to hire full-time officials after the Green Bay Packers were saved from a fumble against the New York Giants.
To be fair, in my opinion, the referees blew the call, and the ball should have been awarded to the Giants. Green Bay got to keep the ball. The national outcry wasn't needed because, ultimately, New York won.
The NFL is the only major sports league in the United States not to employ full-time officials. The writers screaming for full-time referees believe full-timers would make fewer mistakes.
Before last week's Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans game, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league would consider making 10 officials full time. This was before the bad calls in the Green Bay-New York game.
I am not against full-time referees, but I am against stupidity. Major League Baseball has full-time umpires, and they still blow perfect games.
In 2010, a blown call hosed Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga out of a perfect game. From day to day, umpires' strike zones change, and they miss calls so badly that writers and fans constantly ask for more use of instant replays.
The NBA has full-time referees as well. Basketball fans can relate to watching a game and screaming at the TV over bad fouls and blown calls.
One argument for making officials full time is that it would give gamblers fewer chances to get their hooks into an official. But that has already happened in the NBA. The NBA gambling story is long and drawn out. You can Google it and read about the whole sordid affair. Full-time officials didn't help the NBA stay free of bad calls or gambling.
Some of the top divisions in soccer have full-time referees, and you can't even begin to tell me soccer doesn't have bad calls. In fact, if you were going to write a book on bad officiating, I would start with soccer.
As a sports fan, I hope the players on the field decide games instead of the officials. But I also know that the guys wearing the zebra stripes are human. That means they are going to have bad days and miss calls. Still, it's OK for fans to yell and complain about a game's officiating.
And while it's all right for the media to point out bad officiating, the only way to get better officials is through better training and giving leagues the ability to weed out poor officials.
It is just plain stupid to think making an official full time will make them magically better.
Follow Bryan Flynn at http://www.jfpsports.com, Facebook and @jfpsports.
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