NFL referees may soon be full-time employees, but they could have less to do on game days.
Via Judy Battista of NFL Media, the NFL is considering full centralization of the replay review function. This would cut the game-site referees out of the process entirely.
The NFL hopes, per Battista, to improve consistency of officiating and to streamline the process from a time standpoint. The involvement of the league office in replay review via pipeline to each game site already ensures consistency, as long as the referee accepts the advice he receives from NFL executive V.P. of officiating Dean Blandino or his lieutenant, Alberto Riveron.
Taking the decision out of the hands of the referee will make the process cleaner by dispensing with the protracted dog-and-pony show that has the referee puttering from the middle of the field to the sideline, talking to this person, talking to that person, putting on the headset for a Dukakis-in-a-tank photo op, going under the hood, executing the review, emerging from the curtain, taking off the headset, talking to this person, talking to that person, puttering back to the field, and finally announcing the ruling.
When the NFL decided in the midst of the ratings crisis to get creative about ways to trim fat from the game broadcast, the most obvious layer of subcutaneous goo came from the replay review process. It takes too long in its current form, and dispensing with the slow, plodding, multi-step, on-field process will trim some fat from games.