In the wake of the replacement officiating debacle and the return of the regular officials under a labor deal that gives the NFL the right to give the men in black and white a tap on the shoulder during a given season if they’re not getting it done, Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that the league could be overhauling the officiating department.
Though Mortensen names no names, he says that there could be “high-ranking leadership changes” in the football operations department. Given that Ray Anderson is currently the V.P. of football operations, that’s not good news for Anderson.
Anderson’s name has been bubbling up on the league grapevine (yeah, it’s a mixed metaphor . . . hopefully that won’t put me in jeopardy) throughout the week as someone who may be in jeopardy. Apart from his strong public comments about the locked-out officials whom he now has to lead, the powers-that-be could pin on Anderson the disastrous assumption that the replacement officials would be nearly as good as the regular officials.
Mort also explains that the football operations department could be moved out of New York, and that a group of former officials could be responsible for evaluating the officials going forward.