Mike Florio ,
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The AI revolution could be coming to NFL officiating.
Meeting with reporters after the conclusion of quarterly ownership meetings, Commissioner Roger Goodell said that the league is exploring whether and to what extent AI could assist with officiating.
If it helps get more calls right, great. But there are other ways to do it.
Full-time officials remain a must. The league doesn’t want to pay the increased salaries necessary to get the officials to ditch their other jobs and go all-in with the NFL. And that won’t change until public or political pressure forces it to happen.
For example, there would be a significant benefit to gathering all officials in a central location for Tuesday and/or Wednesday in-season sessions, during which they would review relevant situations, develop ideal practices for handling them in the future, and generally strive to ensure consistency among all staffs.
Still, any effort to improve officiating is good. Until there are zero bad calls, the league should be trying to get there. Especially in this age of legalized, normalized, and monetized wagering. As the league said when it hated gambling, normal incidents of the game can create distrust and fuel speculation of chicanery.
That is definitely happening. Plausible or not. Imagined or not. It’s happening. The reality of improvements — and the perception of efforts to improve — is the best, and perhaps only, way to counter that.
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