FanHouse Officiating

The TV executives are unhappy, oooohhhhhh

At this time, the following are but proposals passed down from the NCAA Football Rules Committee. Approval is pending further scrutiny. The proposals include mention of 'horse collar' tackles, incidental facemasks and various timing changes. Let's review these categorically: The Good, The Bad, and The Whatever.

The Good

"abolishing the 5-yard incidental face-mask penalty"

FanHouse approved. Incidental facemask grabs happen all the time and players tend to play through them. So long as there's no twisting or dangerous grabbing, let the incident go and put that flag away.

Any block below the waist when a player already is engaged with another blocker automatically is a chop block penalty.

K.I.S.S. ruled the day here. Says SEC Coordinator of Officiating Rogers Redding:

"What we've simply said is a high-low combination block is going to be illegal. It's going to be clear to everybody. The official is not going to have to worry whether the person committing the block is from an adjacent position or behind or ahead of the line of scrimmage."

A penalty would be added for so-called "horse-collar tackles."

I'm torn between good and bad here. The horse-collar tackle is a dangerous play, but it's also more prevalent in the college game as more plays are made to the outside making backside tackles something of a regular occurrence. The ruling favors offenses but I'm not sure it will actually reduce this kind of desperate tackle.

All year I've had a running conversation with my colleague Charles Rich about what conference has the worst officials. He's made good points about certain situations in the ACC and I can name plenty of Pac-10 situations beyond the obvious Oregon/Oklahoma fiasco.

Tonight's performance may top that.

I didn't immediately see it, but a friend did and what follows is a piecing together (along with what I'm reading on various message boards) of the play in dispute between Oregon State and Washington.

In the game against Buffalo, the Habs played a very solid, spirited 60 minutes of hockey while the Sabres took most of the second period off which cost them the game eventually. They certainly deserved their 2 points. What is noteworthy from this game is the sheer amount of clutching, grabbing, and interference allowed by the guys with the orange armbands, who, frankly I thought had left the ice to grab a brew for most of the game. This is what I call the Guy NHL, named after that great defensive forward and current Head Coach of the Habs, Guy Carbonneau. Watch Gary Bettman's nose grow the next time he says that the standard of what is and what is not a penalty has 'not slipped a bit.,' even though Director of Officiating Stephen Walkom admitted that the standard had changed to Sportsnet's Jim Kelley last week. Playing in Montreal on a Saturday night is like playing the game in quicksand and a time-warp to the late-90's all at the same time. If the Habs are fighting for a playoff spot, one can forget their team getting anything close to a fair game called.

The officiating was so bad and so non-existent in this game that one of the referees missed a blatant high-stick on Ales Kotalik by Francis Bouillon less than 10 feet away from him that dropped Kotalik to the ice for 20 seconds in the 3rd period with the score 4-2. I'm sure the Canadiens fans and the referee in question thought he took a dive, because you know, the Sabres are nothing but a pack of virulent divers. The Canadiens second goal was helped along by Chris Higgins riding Kotalik out of the play without the puck, thereby negating the back-check and leaving the Ty Conklin helpless to face down Radek Bonk. If it wasn't so predictable, it would almost be sad.... well, nearly as sad as the referees refusal to even talk with Lindy Ruff after the goal was scored while Ruff fumed on the bench.

The 'crackdown' on diving in this league has morphed into an opportunity for the referees to turn a blind-eye to the rule changes they never wanted to enforce in the first place. Count me as one of those who wouldn't mind the ticky-tac hooking call go the way of the dodo, but keep the restrictions on hitting guys without the puck on the back/fore/smite-them-hip-and-thighcheck. Defensemen are being run while set to receive a pass without ever receiving said pass. At a minimum that play is interference, at a maximum it's roughing or boarding. There are multiple rules that could be applied which are not.

That game was an object lesson as to why the NHL is ultimately a bush league. It's impossible to know what is and what is not a penalty. Until that changes, until the League realizes that the inconsistent standard of rules enforcement is the biggest obstacle to the casual observer understanding the game, the marginal status of the NHL that so many believe to be a problem will continue. When I have to explain to someone that well, it's hard to get a call in Montreal because it's, well, you know... Mon-Tre-al, and they look at my like I have 4 heads and speak with a lisp it's embarrassing when I don't have an answer for their saying that's insanely stupid and all I can do is shrug and agree with them.

During games like this one I have to wonder why the NHL doesn't just dispense with the 7 game Stanley Cup Finals and play one game of Last Man Standing, like in the Jimmy Caan classic of anti-authoritarian 70's cinema.

Ta,

After taking a beating this season for the sub-par performance of officials in Pac Ten games, Verle Sorgen, the conference's coordinator of referees, has announced his retirement.

Sorgen held the position for 21 years, after serving as a referee himself for as many--but none was as turbulent as 2006.

Who can forget the Oregon-Oklahoma game where the officials not only botched the replay but then gave the ball to the wrong team? The 15-minute review-and-re-review of a touchdown in the USC-Oregon game later that year likely led to the institution of a new time-limit by the NCAA.

And although Sorgen is said to be, " recognized nationally as one of the experts on the rules of college football and on officiating mechanics," his officiating crews were recognized blogophere-wide for their incompetence in 2006.

In a bit of a surprise ruling, the NFL has decided not to fine Robert Geathers for the hit that caused Trent Green's concussion.

I say surprised because I was convinced that the NFL would assess a fine, not because I necessarily felt that he deserved it. The NFL has been rather paranoid about protecting its QBs, and considering the violent impact Trent Green's head made with the ground, it seemed quite likely to me that some form of punishment would come, even if a flag did not.

Doubtless, Kansas City officials and fans will not be happy. Ever since Paul Tagliabue ragged on the Chiefs' defense, the Chiefs and their fans have felt that the NFL has an agenda against them, from the consistently difficult schedule to the officiating.

However, the NFL made the right call. They are also continuing a nice trend in that they are elaborating, with pretty good detail, on their decisions. Last year, they began a weekly feature with Mike Pereira, the NFL's director of officiating, in which he would explain whether the most controversial calls of the week were correctly decided or not. Today, the NFL explained exactly why they were not fining Geathers, and further provided an example from last week of what they would actually consider to be a finable offense.

This is a good trend. I still don't approve of their blanket restriction on postgame comments about the referees, but their willingness for at least partial disclosure of their decisions is a positive step for the NFL.