Tank McNamara by Bill Hinds for October 11, 2024

They need a precog who can call the holding penalty before the play happens.

I always thought a call to Las Vegas and talk to the bookmakers would make more sense.

What makes you think those decisions are made solely by officials?

When a referee is on the field reviewing a play, he is the only one who can see the replay(s). He is also wearing earphones. Who is he talking to?

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And I know of at least one case where there was a college football conference administrator sitting in review booth with the officials responsible for making the calls. There were some seemingly wrong decisions, but that was probably just a coincidence.

And how many amazing plays were only possible because of the holding?

I was a state carded baseball umpire in NJ. Beside high school and college games I would do over thirty leagues. The over thirty league had an expanded strike zone, arm pits to knees to force batters to swing but when I called the high strike they would complain. I told them if any part of the ball goes over the plate in the strike zone it is a strike and it was their rules I was enforcing. After one season I declined their invitation to return the following year, I told them their constant complaining was not worth the 50 dollars they were paying me, especially when I was the only umpire because many of us just didn’t want to be bothered with their BS. The rule are the rules, if you don’t like the rules then change them but don’t complain about the people who are tasked with enforcing them.

That explains a lot.

Cut that guy off.

They could review the effect of the hold on the play. If it had no apparent effect, then don’t call the penalty

“False start—5 yard penalty”—-why is everybody so EAGER??

Well,us New Yorkers have baseball to keep us warm and football to make us ice cold.

Aaron Rodgers had nothing to do with the coach getting fired. And the Empire State Building was built underground

The rules are already written for TV so what is one more?

I stopped watching basketball because of no-calls on traveling and and carrying, so go ahead NFL, stop calling stuff and watch us all dissappear. Bad enough the streaming is sneaking in on football and racing.

Or maybe the spectacular play happened as a result of the hold?

Reduce the holding penalty from ten yards to five yards.

It is so prevalent that the referees could call holding on just about any play.

I agree with Freedom: five yards for holding. And for defensive holding, just the five yards without the automatic first down.

Here’s a thought; how about reverting to pre-1980 rules which required offensive players to actually block. Extending arms in those days was a penalty.

Oh, NO NO NO — the medial ready has too much control over the broadcast of sports!

You should just do the SEC officiating which was remarkably similar to what the NBA did for a long time and thankfully mostly fixed in the last several years. Pick a few teams that get all the calls, a few others that get a few calls against any other team but those top teams, and screw all the rest. South Carolina got screwed against LSU. UK got screwed against Georgia and on and on. That’s why Vandy’s win against Alabama was all the more impressive because Bama played so badly that even the refs couldn’t cheat enough to let them off the hook. It has been that way for 40 years btw. Looks to be taking hold in the ACC too as Louisville just got hosed with an obvious fumble by Notre Dame got overturned.