[Alberta's Child]

They have GOT to get decent, full-time officials, and quit making the referee job something a high school teacher does on the weekends.

The use of part-time officials is one big thing the NFL has gotten right over the years. I can't say for sure, but I suspect that there has never been a "high school teacher" working as an on-field NFL official in decades. The NFL insists on using part-time officials who are typically highly-respected, well-paid executives from Monday to Friday. They do this because a guy who is a regional vice president for Exxon/Mobil or Citicorp is far less likely to throw a game for gamblers than a high school gym teacher.

[Terabitten]

The use of part-time officials is one big thing the NFL has gotten right over the years. I can't say for sure, but I suspect that there has never been a "high school teacher" working as an on-field NFL official in decades. The NFL insists on using part-time officials who are typically highly-respected, well-paid executives from Monday to Friday. They do this because a guy who is a regional vice president for Exxon/Mobil or Citicorp is far less likely to throw a game for gamblers than a high school gym teacher.

You've got a good point in terms of corruption, however, the rules have gotten so Byzantine that I wonder how well the part-time refs can really keep up with it. For example, the NFL made the "horse collar" tackle illegal this year. In the first two or three weeks of the game, I must've seen that penalty called a half-dozen times. Last night, I saw three horse-collar tackles that were uncalled. The problem is the rulebook, not the refs.

[Richard Kimball]

The guy who called the interception by the Steelers in the Colt's game was a high school principal. There was a story about it, because his house was vandalized after the game. They weren't sure if it was students or Steelers fans.