Mike Pereira: Officiating is the only part of the game people expect perfection
Mike Pereira of Fox Sports joined Felger and Mazz on Radio Row in New Orleans on Thursday. Pereira, who used to be an NFL official and was later vice president of officiating for the league, discussed the latest issues with officiating and whether the complaints they’ve been receiving recently have been warranted.
Felger: There’s no doubt in my mind the officiating has never been better and people have never been more agitated.
Mike Pereira: And why is that? Is it the gambling aspect? What it might be is the rise of social media. I mean, back in my day, I didn’t have to worry about social media. Now social media makes everything so much bigger immediately. And you’re right about the officiating, it’s the only part of the game that people expect perfection, and it’s not achievable.
Felger: Thank you.
Mike Pereira: It is not achievable. And really I look at numbers and people don’t like to hear this, but well, at least some people don’t like to hear it, if you take a play with a game with 150 plays, there’s a minimum 10 different decisions that have to be made on that play. I mean, is the formation legal? Is the motion legal? Is there holding?
And you got two officials, a referee, and five guys. The referee and umpire have the center, two guards, and two tackles. You have got the contact downfield, is it a foul? Is it not a foul? Minimum 10 decisions per play. Which 150 plays per game, that means they got 1,500 decisions to make in a game. And they’re right 98% of the time. That’s phenomenal at the speed that you talk about.
