FanHouse MikePereira

Not to say I didn't need the break, because it was nice, but not filing a quasi-weekly Zebra Report left a void in my writing life. With all the recent attention being paid to rule tweaks -- most of which are just guidelines -- in recent days, though, I figured we'd dust off TZR (initials! How cool are we?) and give a little spin on what this means between the lines.

As a refresher, I am a high school back judge with nine years of experience. I'm obviously not qualified to critique the NFL officials, but I'm much more qualified than those who have never officiated at all. The looks at officiating here are simply from the perspective of a high school official, and in no way do they reflect the actual opinion of the NFL officials.

There's nothing easier than ripping the refs. Across all sports, bashing the officials is a time-honored tradition. "Kill the umpire!" is a line in Casey at the Bat, for goodness' sake. Nobody should pretend that Ed Hochuli is the first guy to blow a call and get torched for it.

But this story on NFL officiating makes you wonder. From Mike Triplett of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, after a conversation with NFL head of officiating Mike Pereira:

NFL referees will be getting a new boss next year.

Mike Pereira, the league's vice president of officiating, is retiring. Jay Glazer reported on Fox (via PFT) that Pereira will spend a final year on the job to get his replacement up to speed, and then he'll be out of the NFL, where he's been the head of refs since 2001.

Pereira is best known to fans for appearing on NFL Network to explain rules and controversial calls, and in that role he does a fine job. It would be a wise move for one of the TV networks to hire Pereira as a commentator.

Great news, Titans fans: got some closure for you. Mike Pereira, the NFL head of officials, agrees that, yes, the Ravens probably should've been called for delay of game during that last, fateful drive that would eventually set up Matt Stover's game-winning field goal.

Quick refresher for the one person who has no idea what I'm talking about: with the score tied 10-10, 2:52 to go in the fourth quarter, and the Ravens facing a third and 2, quarterback Joe Flacco didn't take the snap until after the play clock hit "00."

By itself, that's not necessarily a penalty; as Snyder pointed out at the time, "if the clock strikes zero and the snap is eminent, [the officials] will let it happen." We see it all the time, but when it's a playoff game, and on the play in question, Flacco completes a 23-yard pass to Todd Heap. And six plays later, Baltimore takes the lead, I can sorta understand all the mock outrage.

As I mentioned in the Zebra Report, the controversial ending to the Steelers/Ravens game from this past weekend has caused NFL officiating and their use of replay to come under fire, not to mention the overall knowledge of NFL referees and if they should be asking for help on rules interpretation when under the replay hood. We NFL 'Housers figured we'd have a little discussion on the matter.

Bruce Ciskie: ProFootballTalk speculates that Walt Coleman didn't understand the rule on the Holmes "touchdown" in Baltimore on Sunday.

Mike Florio also cites the Steelers-Chargers finish and the "intentional grounding" on Aaron Rodgers against the Vikings as other examples of officials possibly not understanding rules. Obviously, the Rodgers play wasn't reviewable, but the other two were. When a referee goes under the hood, can he ask the booth what a specific rule is? I mean, I've seen the rulebook and I know it's insane. I've taken the NCAA officiating exam and done horribly at it, so it's hard for me to expect a human being to know every rule at all times.

Maybe this season is no different than the others, but it sure seems like NFL officials are in the middle of more controversial calls than I can remember. It all started in Week 2 with Ed Hochuli gifting the Broncos a win over the Chargers. In Week 11, Scott Green screwed degenerate gamblers out of millions. And yesterday, it was Walt Coleman's turn.

You certainly know the story by now -- late in the game, trailing 9-6, the Steelers marched 87 yards, and on third-and-goal, Ben Roethlisberger found Santonio Holmes near the end zone (his feet were definitely in; it wasn't initially clear if the ball broke the plane). The call on the field was fourth-and-millimeters. The play was reviewed and a few minutes later, Coleman announced that Holmes had scored a touchdown, 13-9, Steelers, thanks for coming.

Commence whinging.

This morning I mentioned that Coleman, after botching the on-field explanation, elaborated on the call after the game. And in his Monday Morning Quarterback column, Peter King spoke with NFL head of officiating, Mike Pereira for his take on the reversal:

FanHouse's resident referee will chime in weekly with thoughts on major topics relating to officiating. We call it The Zebra Report. Matt Snyder is a high school official with eight years experience. While this is like a third-year resident critiquing the work of a world-renowned surgeon, it's still better than someone who has never worn the stripes.

As we get later in the season, there will likely be less for me to cover here. Sure, an uncovered gem like the free kick field goal could be unearthed. Generally speaking, though, I've probably covered most of the tricky rules interpretations by now. The point of the Zebra Report is not to give a forum for people to complain about obvious blown calls. In the past, you've seen me type, "we all saw it," when mistakes have been made. My aim, instead, is to focus on actual rules, positioning, and to maybe even speculate (with disclaimers, of course) what the official may have been thinking when making a judgment.

With this in mind, we only have three items this week. Worry not, my friends, because you will most certainly get your money's worth.

Earlier today, Ryan Wilson pointed out that NFL head of officiating, Mike Pereira, did the unthinkable and came to the defense of a safety for knocking the proverbial snot out of a receiver. Shocking, I know. Right after I read about it I looked out my window and saw two pigs flying across the sky, as it rained skittles on the blue grass.

I'll be honest, when I saw Ryan Clark run through Wes Welker on Sunday, I figured the flag was the right call, mainly because I didn't know the exact rule on leveling a defenseless receiver. I was also trying to make a guess as to how big the fine would be, because it seemed like an inevitability that Clark would be receiving "the envelope" on Friday morning. Of course, Pereira set the record straight, and confirmed that it was indeed a legal play.

Following the game, Clark made mention that he attempted to track down Welker to assure him that he wasn't trying to play dirty. Today, Welker spoke for the first time since the game, and said that, as of now, Clark has not been in touch with him, nor does Welker expect him to because, well, it's football. From Patriots beat writer Mike Reiss' blog at the Boston Globe:

No. I mean, I don't really expect him to. It's a football play. It is what it is. No sense in crying or whining about it. You just have to keep on moving on and get ready for the next week.

Take note, Terrell Suggs, that's how you react to getting hit in a football game.

This might be the most shocking thing you'll hear all season: NFL head of officiating Mike Pereira says that when Ryan Clark tried to saw Wes Welker in half, he was well within the rules. As in: he shouldn't have been flagged.

Um ... what?

Don't misunderstand, I miss the days when players were actually allowed to tackle each other, it's just that the NFL -- through their actions this season, anyway -- have been advocating for just the opposite. Until Pereira escaped the compound, went through Kool-Aid detox and offered this, via the Boston Herald's Ron Borges:

Here's some news that's sure to reassure the degenerate gamblers/tinfoil-hat crowd: the NFL would like you to know that the NFL isn't fixed. Actually, I don't think any reasonable person ever thought game officials were on the take, just blindingly incompetent.

Maybe that's a reach -- there have been several high-profile blown calls this season and that hasn't helped the perception -- but the fact that Mike Pereira, the league's head of officiating, had to publicly state that there is no Tim Donaghy funny business going on is, if nothing else, an indictment on the quality of NFL officiating.