The chain gang is staying for at least one more year.
For being a major sports league with revenue in the tens of billions, the NFL has been woefully behind other sports when it comes to technology. The most glaring example of that has been the NFL’s continued use of a chain gang to measure first downs on already-subjective spots.
Well, it looks like the chain gang is going to continue for at least one more year.
The NFL had tested automated first down technology this preseason with the hope of potentially implementing it for the 2024 season. The tech was supposed to be similar to what we have seen for years with tennis’ reviews and soccer’s automated offside and goal line tech in VAR. If the automated first down tech worked, it would have given quick and accurate measurements. It also would have saved us from the charade of a bunch of officials running onto the field with a chain to essentially measure a guess by the side judge.
Unfortunately, that technology did not work as intended.
It is nowhere near ready. It was used 3x in our 3 preseason games, took double the time it would take the chain gang, and everyone awkwardly stood around waiting for the referee to announce whether or not it was a first down. https://t.co/jP5mTvP2UJ
During the preseason, the first down tech had some uneven results, and in many cases, it took longer than what the traditional chain gang would have done on their own. So, the league is going to table the technology and hope to have it ready for 2025.
Of course, the NFL should’ve had this ready years ago. But at least it isn’t rushing out an unpolished product. It’s the right call to wait until the technology is ready.
The chain gang is staying for at least one more year.
For being a major sports league with revenue in the tens of billions, the NFL has been woefully behind other sports when it comes to technology. The most glaring example of that has been the NFL’s continued use of a chain gang to measure first downs on already-subjective spots.
Well, it looks like the chain gang is going to continue for at least one more year.
The NFL had tested automated first down technology this preseason with the hope of potentially implementing it for the 2024 season. The tech was supposed to be similar to what we have seen for years with tennis’ reviews and soccer’s automated offside and goal line tech in VAR. If the automated first down tech worked, it would have given quick and accurate measurements. It also would have saved us from the charade of a bunch of officials running onto the field with a chain to essentially measure a guess by the side judge.
Unfortunately, that technology did not work as intended.
It is nowhere near ready. It was used 3x in our 3 preseason games, took double the time it would take the chain gang, and everyone awkwardly stood around waiting for the referee to announce whether or not it was a first down. https://t.co/jP5mTvP2UJ
During the preseason, the first down tech had some uneven results, and in many cases, it took longer than what the traditional chain gang would have done on their own. So, the league is going to table the technology and hope to have it ready for 2025.
Of course, the NFL should’ve had this ready years ago. But at least it isn’t rushing out an unpolished product. It’s the right call to wait until the technology is ready.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spoke for about an hour on Wednesday during his annual press conference ahead of the Super Bowl in Arizona. And while Goodell rarely criticizes the league in his well-rehearsed answers, one comment, in particular, had fans in disbelief.
Goodell claimed that the league does not have a problem with its officiating. In fact, he considered it the best it had ever been.
Now, NFL officials do have a difficult job, but they’re also supposed to be the best at what they do. With top referees either retiring or taking lucrative TV jobs, the NFL has been left with officiating crews making inexcusable mistakes that impact games. Just look at this year’s AFC Championship Game.
Here's the full response NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had when asked about the state of officiating.
Goodell came in strong defending officiating despite the heavy criticism from fans, coaches and team executives. pic.twitter.com/GeOv3k5KtF
Goodell dismissed the notion that broadcast hires have impacted the quality of officiating. But at the same time, it was wild to hear him claim that there wasn’t a need for significant changes or more accountability from officials.
NFL fans understandably roasted his remarks as well.
In recent years, the NFL has implemented rules designed to protect players from dangerous hits to the head. After all, player safety has to be a priority given everything we know about the longterm effects of concussions.
But sometimes, it certainly seems like that emphasis on protecting players is only given to quarterbacks. Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster would have a reason to feel that way.
During Sunday’s Week 10 game between the Chiefs and Jaguars, Smith-Schuster took a hard hit to the helmet from Andre Cisco and went down with a fencing response often seen as a result of head trauma. The officials initially threw a flag on the helmet-to-helmet hit, but after discussion, referee Brad Rogers decided to pick up the flag.
refs picked up the flag on this one but i dunno, that looks like helmet-to-helmet and a defenseless receiver to me pic.twitter.com/jHpfVq79cn
Every replay seemingly showed that it was a clear hit to the head of a defenseless receiver, so the decision to pick up the penalty was borderline abhorrent. When you watch the play in full speed, the no-call looks even worse. Smith-Schuster had no time to defend himself, and the NFL is trying to eliminate that exact kind of hit from the game.
The NFL was ready to implement serious changes in the way on-field officials communicated with the replay officials, but without a preseason to test the league has ended that experiment before it got started/
The Dallas Cowboys have a chance to have one of the best records in the league in 2020, but it could depend on a few players have their breakout seasons. Two players to watch who could become household names include safety Xavier Woods and cornerback Chidobe Auzie. Another young corner, Trevon Diggs, spent the summer competing with his all-pro brother, and many are placing high expectations on the Alabama product. Plus, the latest from Stephen Jones regarding the future of Dak Prescott and the Cowboys.
The NFL was ready to test expanded booth-to-official communication this upcoming season, but with no preseason to test things out, the league has chose to wait to implement these new technologies. No preseason along with no camp visits so the refs can warm up before the regular season? Yikes.
Many believe that the Cowboys inability to sign Dak Prescott to a long term deal this offseason points to Prescott not being Dallas quarterback of the future. Stephen Jones recently voiced his opinions on the matter, and Jones believes just the opposite.
Michael Gallup, Xavier Woods, and Chidobe Awuzie are all massively important to the Cowboys success in 2020, but which one is most likely to break out and become a pro-bowl level player? The Cowboys staff writers debate the biggest breakout candidate heading into the season.
CBS Sports determined the best team ever for each NFL franchise. The Cowboys have five Super Bowl winning teams to choose from, follow the link above to find out which Dallas roster made the cut.
Five years ago the Cowboys became the most valuable sports franchise in the world, and they haven’t looked back. Forbes ranked the most valuable sports teams and the Cowboys were first again, and by half a billion dollars this year.
The Cowboys had one of the best offenses in football a year ago, and an average defense, but that shouldn’t add up to an 8-8 record. NFL Network previews all the aspects of the Cowboys upcoming season, including a best-case scenario projection and a worst-case scenario projection.
Without a traditional off season, it has been harder for NFL players to get their regular training regimen in. Luckily for rookie Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs, he and his pro-bowl brother Stefon Diggs have used each other to improve their skills this summer.
In the latest edition of Mailbag, Cowboy’s staff writers David Helman & Jonny Auping do their best to answer fan questions. This edition’s questions revolve around how teams will use the practice squad in this unique season, and does Devin Smith have the best shot at becoming the fourth Cowboy wide receiver?
This is the online version of our morning newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.
The NFL avoided a major embarrassment on Sunday when the league stepped in during halftime of the Dallas Cowboys-Los Angeles Rams game and corrected a wrong by the game’s referee, Walt Anderson.
In case you missed it, Dak Prescott told Anderson after the Cowboys won the coin toss that they wanted to kick. Prescott said kick a few times and then said the Cowboys were choosing to defer to the second half.
Well, Anderson didn’t hear the “defer” part and ruled that the Rams would receive the opening kickoff to both the start of the game and then to start the second half, which would have been ridiculous.
Fox showed a video during the first half in which you could hear Prescott clearly saying “defer.” Then during the halftime break the league stepped in and told the officials that the Rams would be kicking off in the second half. It was a great job by the NFL of stepping in and avoiding such a dumb thing from happening during the day’s biggest game.
But here’s the thing – why does the coin toss need to be so difficult? My colleague Steven Ruiz brought up a good point in our Slack chat on Sunday when he asked “why aren’t the options just kick or receive?” Sometimes the most simple questions are the best, and that one by Steven was pretty darn good.
Why are we messing with this “defer” nonsense when there really is just two options? We’ve made so many things in our lives easier over the years, why can’t we do it with the coin toss? Do we really need to have these officials screwing up something that is so simple?
Dak said the Cowboys wanted to kick. So if I’m the ref I’m like, “Cool, Cowboys are kicking in the first half, receiving in the second.” It’s not that hard. I’m not leaning in to find out if he said the “defer” word and then leaning in again to hear if really did say it. Instead, I’m moving on and getting the game started.
These NFL refs continue to prove they can screw up just about everything, now even coin tosses. Let’s do our best to make their lives easier, because they clearly need it.
Kick or Receive? Those are you only two options from now on.
That’s it!
NFL Week 15 Awards: The good, the bad, and the hilarious from Sunday.
(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Here’s my weekly gif-by-gif look at all the fun stuff that happened on Sunday. This week we saw a great TD celebration by Ezekiel Elliott, a special TD for an Eagles WR, and so much more. Push your work aside and dig into these awards.
Quick hits: Raiders fans get emotional… Eagles provide a bad beat… Urban Meyer to Redskins needs to happen… And more!
Daniel Shirey/Getty Images
– Raiders fans had a rough and emotional ending to the final game in Oakland on Sunday. They even booed Derek Carr off the field!
This is the online version of our morning newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.
Here we are in December, when things start to get really serious in the NFL, and it’s clear that the refs don’t know what they’re doing and are going to screw things up yet again at some point either down the stretch of the season or in the playoffs.
Remember the worst no-call in maybe the history of sports last January that cost the Saints a trip to the Super Bowl last year.
Something like that is going to happen again this year. Mark my words.
I say this because if you have watched any football this year you’ve likely noticed a call. or no-call, that didn’t make any sense to you at all.
Or it could be one of the many horrific calls/no-calls in Sunday’s Chiefs-Patriots game that cost the Patriots two touchdowns.
Either way, a ref is going to play a big part in a big moment that will affect the outcome of a game and it’s clear that the NFL doesn’t care. It seems like if players aren’t smoking pot and the checks from Bud Light are being cashed, then all is good with the league. It just doesn’t seem like the NFL cares about making sure the officials are at the top of their games, which is saddening.
Let’s look back to that Chiefs-Patriots game. Here was the marque game of the week that was viewed by a huge audience in the 4:25 p.m. slot. A rematch of last year’s epic AFC Championship Game featuring two teams that are fighting for pivotal playoff seedings. And the NFL had to watch as its refs embarrassed themselves three different times.
It started with the refs missing an obvious fumble and then blowing the play dead, even though the Patriots had picked up the fumble and were running for what looked like a sure six points. Bill Belichick had to use his final challenge on the play, the call was reversed but the six points never happened. That would have been a huge TD.
Then on the ensuing drive, Patriots rookie wide receiver N’Keal Harry dove toward the end zone and scored a TD with a beautiful, athletic move. Refs, however, ruled he was out of bounds at the 3 yard line, which replays showed was clearly wrong. Belichick didn’t have any challenges left and the Patriots had to settle for a field goal. That play should have been reviewed because all scoring plays are reviewed and this was clearly a scoring play. But since he was ruled out at the 3, there was no review.
Later in the game Patriots WR Phillip Dorsett was clearly interfered with on a deep pass inside the 10 yard line but it wasn’t called. Belichick again was out of challenges and couldn’t do anything about this:
(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
Is easy to blame refs for a team’s failures but these decisions by the refs played a huge part in this big matchup. It’s a little easier to take since it’s the regular season but if this happens again in the postseason then the NFL will have a huge problem on its hands once again.
I’m sure if that happens Roger Goodell will come out and give some soulless answer that protected the shield but did nothing for the team and the fans that got screwed over.
The league needs to be better than this. Especially as we march toward the playoffs.
NFL Week 14 Awards: Kittle goes beastmode!
Chuck Cook-USA TODAY SPORTS
Here’s my weekly gif-by-gif look back at the good, the bad, and the hilarious from Sunday’s NFL action. George Kittle’s awesome play in the final minute of the 49ers’ win over the Saints is definitely in there. So is a beer drinking celebration by a Ravens DB and a ‘Toy Story’ celebration by a rookie QB.
Quick takes: Pats booed at home… Steelers fans take over in Arizona… How Garrett can keep his job… And more!
It’s easy and lazy to blame the officials when something goes wrong, but the New England Patriots had reason to be frustrated with the refs during Sunday’s game against the Chiefs.
Officiating mistakes took two touchdowns off the board for New England.
It started late in the third quarter when Travis Kelce appeared — at least to the officials — to pick up a first down with the ball coming out after the tackle. While the officials ruled that Kelce was down by contact, Stephon Gilmore picked up the ball and had a favorable path to a scoop-and-score touchdown (assuming the blocking held up).
Still, officials are instructed to let the play unfold if it’s close, but referee Jerome Boger’s crew elected to blow the play dead right away. They shouldn’t have.
Bill Belichick challenged the call as it was clear that Kelce fumbled before he was down by contact. So while the Patriots received possession, they had a possible touchdown completely wiped away by the whistle. It also forced Belichick to burn his final challenge — having already lost his first challenge of the game.
That would almost immediately come back to bite the Patriots.
On the ensuing possession, rookie receiver N’Keal Harry walked a tightrope down the sideline and reached for the end zone for what should have been a Patriots touchdown. The officials, though, ruled that Harry had stepped out of bounds, but replays would show that Harry clearly remained in play.
this was ruled out-of-bounds on the field and the Pats are out of challenges to get it reversed
The Patriots couldn’t challenge the play and couldn’t find the end zone on the subsequent three plays. They had to settle for a field goal to cut the deficit to seven points.
They can blame that third-quarter whistle for all of it. The missed calls changed the game.
