WALT ANDERSON BEGINS his Mondays like many in corporate America: pondering what surprises might await in his company inbox.<\/p>\n
Anderson has learned to expect a series of mini-crises, with each sender believing their respective issue warrants an immediate and satisfactory reply.<\/p>\n
Anderson and his staff will do their best to comply because their company is the NFL, and those incoming messages are not from middle management, but from NFL coaches and team executives in search of answers to pressing questions.<\/p>\n
For Anderson, the NFL\u2019s rules analyst and club communications liaison, his job is critical even if seemingly impossible: bringing clarity to how and why game officials make decisions that can heavily influence the outcome of games.<\/p>\n
And make it fast, will you?<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of them will want answers Monday or Tuesday, because the NFL week does not wait on anybody,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n
The idea of hearing from potentially 32 annoyed coaches each week might not sound like a dream job.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tough job,\u201d as one team executive put it. \u201cEveryone is always bitching at you.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Anderson, for instance, who heard from the Baltimore Ravens last week after tight end Isaiah Likely\u2019s would-be go-ahead touchdown catch with under three minutes left in a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Likely was initially granted a 13-yard touchdown catch, but the play was overturned after a review and ruled incomplete.<\/p>\n
Ravens coach John Harbaugh spent the following day on the phone with Anderson and senior vice president of officiating administration Perry Fewell, and Harbaugh did not come away satisfied.<\/p>\n
The catch rule, Harbaugh said, \u201cis about as clear as mud right now. That\u2019s how I feel about it.\u201d He added, the conversations \u201cdidn\u2019t clear anything up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Anderson, a longtime referee and former senior vice president of officiating, has learned something perhaps unexpected in two seasons in his current role.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been very, very few instances when we have follow-ups or detailed conversations that we come away pissed at each other,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of people think that\u2019s always the case, but it\u2019s just not like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
That borderline penalty call that had your favorite team\u2019s head coach barking at the referee Sunday? The team probably later sought clarity on that call. And what eventually transpired was probably much less combative.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what will surprise people is they will say, \u2018We screwed up,\u2019\u201d said John Lynch, San Francisco 49ers president of football operations\/general manager. \u201cDoes that make you feel better? No, but at least they\u2019re being honest about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay added, \u201cWhat I\u2019ve always appreciated is, if there has been a missed call, there\u2019s an accountability. And they just want to get it right, too. I think that\u2019s one of the things that I\u2019ve gotten a little bit better insight on.\u201d<\/p>\n
But adjudicating the accuracy of calls is only one part of this process. Teams also seek guidance on teaching players how to avoid infractions. They even ask for help in coaching legal techniques in practice. A maximum of 10 plays per team can be submitted each week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be any topic that\u2019s covered in the 235 pages of the rule book,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n
Indeed, when a play concludes during an NFL game, the conversation around it might be only beginning. Here\u2019s how NFL teams and the league\u2019s officiating staff resolve disagreements in the aftermath of games, and how, exactly, the feedback is put to future use by all parties.<\/p>\n
WHEN THE KANSAS City Chiefs hosted the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 2, Chiefs coach Andy Reid — like many others — questioned whether the Eagles\u2019 offensive linemen were committing false starts on their tush push plays.<\/p>\n
The Eagles \u201cmight have a couple that they got off early on. We\u2019ll look at that,\u201d Reid said after the game. Though he wasn\u2019t explicit, it\u2019s likely the Chiefs submitted one or more of the plays in question for further clarification because they were not flagged on the field.<\/p>\n
Reid and the Chiefs were not shortchanged by the follow-up.<\/p>\n
The situation received significantly more attention than a run-of-the-mill inquiry, which typically consists of a written response. More complex queries are elevated to virtual meetings between the team and league officiating staff, but this went even further.<\/p>\n
The NFL sent out a memo to all 32 teams stating that the plays should have been flagged for false starts and adding that there would be further scrutiny of push plays moving forward. The memo was also accompanied by the league\u2019s weekly officiating video, which is circulated to teams and game officials to address numerous situations from the previous weekend.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Anderson produces weekly videos that are shared with the general public, addressing both correct and incorrect calls. In the case of the Eagles-Chiefs game, he appeared on NFL Network in the following days and addressed the missed calls during a rules segment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the ball is set, the center can be over the ball, but all the other linemen, they\u2019ve got to be behind the football,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got to make sure they\u2019re back far enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
The whole thing probably provided little solace to Reid, whose team lost to the Eagles 20-17. But it\u2019s all part of what the NFL says is its effort to increase transparency at a time when doing so is seen as critical.<\/p>\n
In this era of high-definition, large-screen televisions, and with the proliferation of sports betting and the skepticism it creates, being upfront is more important than ever.<\/p>\n
Think of this as the NFL\u2019s answer to the NBA\u2019s Last Two Minute Report, which assesses each call made by officials in the final two minutes of each game and provides a public accounting of those decisions.<\/p>\n
The follow-ups don\u2019t always end in agreement. Take, for instance, the recent example involving a field goal attempt by Minnesota Vikings kicker Will Reichard, who insisted his missed 51-yard attempt against the Cleveland Browns in a game in London made contact with a cable used to operate an overhead television camera. The Vikings submitted the play for review, and the matter was escalated to the highest levels, even discussed at an October owners meeting.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, after an investigation, the league maintained that the ball did not contact the cable. What appeared to be an odd trajectory was, in effect, the result of an optical illusion from a field-level TV camera, the NFL said in a statement to ESPN.<\/p>\n
These exchanges between NFL teams and league officials aren\u2019t new.<\/p>\n
It has always been considered prudent for teams to seek more information about rulings in the aftermath of games. But the more formalized process, and the permanent placement of Anderson in a newly created role, have helped make the process more productive.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen mistakes are made, you\u2019ve got to own up to them,\u201d Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. \u201cAnd I think they\u2019ve done a much better job of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arizona Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon suggested this process has allowed him to become more open-minded about officiating.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like sometimes everyone wants it to be very consistent and the calls to be the same throughout all the different games and all the different crews,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a human element to officiating. So, if you ask any two humans a question, there\u2019s going to be a little bit of a difference. So, I think the human element to officiating, you\u2019ve got to understand that piece, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, there are the inevitable mixed emotions that come along with occasionally learning that a team got a raw deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why some days after games, I don\u2019t even bother to turn them in,\u201d LaFleur said. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to change the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said McVay: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make me feel any better. You try to keep it moving and control what you can. But, I mean, I think you can probably guess. I get pissed.\u201d<\/p>\n
McVAY\u2019S POINT RAISES a question: Is there a practical application for the information teams receive in this process?<\/p>\n
Without a doubt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take it to right to the meeting room, right then and there,\u201d Atlanta Falcons coach Raheem Morris said. \u201cGo right to our teachable moments when we talk every single week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morris added, \u201cI don\u2019t really need them to admit fault or admit anything they did wrong. I really just try to find out what we can do better in order for it not to happen again. For example, holding calls. Something happened and it got called a couple different times. Just trying to find different ways and different areas and what we can do differently if we\u2019re doing something that looks illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson said most communication early in the week stems from events in games that were played the previous weekend. But as the next slate of games approaches, Anderson said his staff begins to receive inquiries that deal with topics specific to the upcoming opponents for teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about helping us coaches learn, understand the \u2018why\u2019 behind it, and then we can do that for our players,\u201d Gannon said.<\/p>\n
There probably will never be a panacea for officiating issues. It\u2019s an imperfect process, full of subjectivity, prone to human error. But from league officials to coaches to team executives, there appears to be agreement that the dialogue is helpful and an important step in the right direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great,\u201d said Lynch, a member of the league\u2019s competition committee, which makes recommendations to owners about rules changes and other parts of the game. \u201cThere\u2019s no agenda. Well, there\u2019s always an agenda.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s trying to win. But I think for somebody who cares deeply about the game and has been around it for a long time, what I like is, at the end of the day, people are all just trying to make the game better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WALT ANDERSON BEGINS his Mondays like many in corporate America: pondering what surprises might await in his company…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82,1733],"class_list":{"0":"post-351144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}