"All-star" officiating crew for Rams-Chiefs game
 

NFL ups intensity with all-star officials for Rams-Chiefs game

Kevin Seifert
ESPN.com NFL Nation



The NFL took the unusual step this week of assigning an "all-star" officiating crew to the most highly anticipated game of the season, adding to the playofflike frenzy for Monday night's matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Rams.

Referee Clete Blakeman will work the game with only two members of his regular crew, umpire Ramon George and down judge Dana McKenzie. The other five officials -- including Jim Lapetina, who will handle replay -- were plucked from four other crews.

The approach is similar to how the NFL assigns officials to playoff games, a process that is based on performance and seniority rather than crew. But it is rarely, if ever, employed before the postseason. Officials typically work on the same eight-person crews throughout the regular season to maximize continuity and familiarity among members.

Individual crew members are occasionally juggled for health or scheduling reasons. But a series of actions this season have indicated the league is moving away from the consistent crew concept, in favor of a more aggressive administration of officiating. Earlier this season, the league bounced down judge Hugo Cruz among four crews before ultimately making him its first-ever official to be fired for performance during the season.

NFL spokesman Michael Signora confirmed Sunday that "there is a rotation amongst the crews throughout the season." Signora did not provide details on the decision to overhaul Blakeman's crew for Monday night's game.

An officiating source said Sunday that the five officials added to Monday night's crew are all highly respected and have performed well this season.

The Chiefs-Rams game, originally scheduled to be played in Mexico City before it was relocated to Los Angeles, is a rare matchup. Since 1970, there have been only four other games pitting teams with one or fewer losses this late in the season. And according to the Elias Sports Bureau, this is the latest matchup ever between two teams averaging at least 33 points per game.

The following is the full crew for Monday night's game, as listed on the official flip card published by the NFL, with the officials' permanent referee in parentheses:


Referee: Clete Blakeman

Umpire: Ramon George (Blakeman)

Down judge: Dana McKenzie (Blakeman)

Line judge: Rusty Baynes (John Hussey)

Field judge: Dale Shaw (Jerome Boger)

Side judge: Brad Freeman (Clay Martin)

Back judge: Tony Steratore (Boger)

Replay: Jim Lapetina (Brad Allen)



http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2...ff-rams-chiefs

The fix is in

prepare uranus

Yup only to get a new moron to call forward progress on a sack fumble.

THIS

LMAO

Why the hell would you take a bunch of guys that haven't worked together all year and put them together for just this game? It's better to have guys that are used to working together. Never understood why they do this for playoffs/superbowls either.

Thank you pete

An optimist would say "they want this called with ultimate professionalism"

A pessimist would say "they're not leaving the fix to chance"

Guess we'll see which camp is right soon enough...

Isn't this the chick ref that gets bullied into calls and called three penalties on one play against the Chiefs a couple of weeks ago? If so, we're screwed.

I equally don't understand why it matters if officials have worked together all year or not. They have a position with the duties of that position. It doesn't really matter who is at the other positions because they have their own duties. Duties overlap, but that doesn't mean you need the crew to have worked together.

****.

It makes for a convenient excuse when they blow the call that decides the game tomorrow....

That's her.

She's an all-star.

Ahh geez, here come the nutty conspiracy theories...

This isn't a bunch of pussy snowflakes blaming Russia for the failures of the crooked Democrat Party and not able to get out of the way of their own cognitive dissonance, Fishhead.

Geez.

No it a dude.

You're right. Whew!

Oh good grief you guys.

we're NOT the same victim role Chiefs - stop acting like it!

ROFL

I know who to trust and who not to trust when it comes to finding chicks on the strip.

Shouldn't the refs that were scheduled to go to mexico be allowed to do the game they were supposed to??? Why would they need new refs?

Saints won and the Chargers lost...looks like the NFL double-downed on tomorrow's night game. The officials blatantly tried in the Donks game...phantom OPI with 37 seconds left and called a 2 point conversion short.

They've assembled their top "dive crew" ...it's LA or bust.

Well.... here come the flags on the RPOs for lineman downfield....you know it's coming...

ROFL ROFL ROFL

One way I can see it mattering is when it comes to discussing calls. Refs review their performance and that of the crew after a game so if they know from experience that certain discussions or opinions are more likely to lead to correct calls or picking up flags then they can better trust each other during the game.

I wish i could see life like this I really do. The Chief's need to get and maintain a 2 score lead to take the officiating out of it. Under 2 scores and we are screwed. We have to pummel our way to a ring.

Not if the chains are on our side of the field. Of course, our luck we will get charged with harassment.

So a crew put together from several roofers, working together for the first time, can’t build a proper roof because they didn’t have the time talk about it enough?

If anything, this is like putting a squad of policemen from several areas of Missouri. They’ll all know the laws without any situational/zip code bias that could potentially muddy the social perception on big calls.

This is a good thing, this should take away the conspiracy theories. Should, except some of you are just bat shit crazy

Time for an All-Star ass ****ing.

if so, it’s going to be for us. The NFL would love to have Mahomes shine on MNF.

The NFL would like the cushion between NE and the Chiefs to lessen considering the market

The fix is in.

Oh you played the victim role already this year to a game other than the Pats' game. Your percentages aren't that great. But by all means - believe what you want.

What's even funnier is - a friend of mine who posts here - already said you'd post this. They texted me that - they were SPOT ON!

The officials are actually really nice people

Based on a quick search, boger consistently is one of the biggest penalty whores in the game.

They know this is a big game. And I'm sure the NFL doesn't want the refs interrupting every damn play. Less penalties also means less chance a red will influence games. I'll be optimistic and assume this is a good thing.

You mean for pointing out the officials essentially invented a penalty with :37 seconds left....which negated FG range and cost the Donks 22 yards in field position?

I think about 50 people, here, have pointed out the same thing...

WTF are you talking about? I point out bullshit calls in every game I watch...

I pay special attention when a team has a new stadium in the works and is unfairly hyped...then late calls start to happen in their favor. It happened last week when the Chargers WR stepped out of bounds with half his foot...but they let the TD stand. They got a bogus penalty, late, this week...which should have decided the game. There is a pattern forming..

This same shit happened when the Raiders where trying to get a stadium in Vegas....bogus late calls/hype. They were picked to be in the SB....much like the Chargers are being hyped. There is an agenda...and it started last off-season.

Dana McKenzie, DEAD

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obit...kenzie-7410028

Good policy. Don't want communists trying to ruin a good thing.

So...your "friend" is in on it?

What you trying to say, SR?

Funny how Chase Kreenum's failed 2 pt conversion looked just like Big Blen Rapenbooger's game winning TD...

Denver beat the refs AND the Chargers. Good on them.

Now back to **** DONK FOREVER.

It's Denver's fault for not challenging it. More often than not when a player is diving like that for the end zone their knee will hit before the ball crosses the goal line. Now let's also look at who was the one diving the ball, Crase Creecum. I don't think he's the most athletic guy in the NFL, so the refs (who believe it or not are not perfect) probably took those factors into consideration and said no good. The refs didnt have the luxury of seeing the play from 10 different angles and in super slow motion and you want to know why they didn't get that luxury???Because Vance Joseph is possibly be the dumbest coach in the NFL, but I can't say that for sure since the league is somehow filled with stupid coaches.

I bet the refs would have loved to have been stopped by some reerun throwing a red flag on the field, so they could run over to the Microsoft Surface that is surrounded by a box that is plastered with Microsoft Surface advertising. I mean I don't blame Microsoft for advertising any chance they get, since they thought it was a good idea to drop 80 million a year for 5 years to become the exclusive provider of technology to the NFL. But my point is that no the refs did not try to screw Denver out of a win and Vance Joseph is really dumb and should have challenged the play. Some of you guys act like the officiating doesn't have a human element to it and that they are going to be perfect, but that just isn't the case. Although, I do believe they try to keep games close for viewership and certain teams are given more calls than others, the games aren't rigged/scripted.

Wait, Blakeman replaced Boger??? Boger is the worst ****ing ref in football. If we dodged a ****ing Boger game this is all win.

We will curbstomp the Rams and the Refs

This! They're all aboard the Mahomes Express. How many times can the refs blatantly trip Todd Gurley though? Holding calls, that's the ticket

Honestly, I hope the refs stay the **** out of this one and let the best team win tonight.

Best advertising $'s even spent in the NFL.

My initial take was optimism, but now I am a bit skeptical after reading this thread.

Goodell probably isn't happy about the LOS Angeles Chargers losing yesterday

I would bet on the over for this game. I'm thinking the NFL has told these guys to keep the QBs clean and the points high. We will see a lot of no calls on OL holding.

Those two calls were the ones late in the game that were so damn obvious.

The announcers even made a big point of how bad those calls were.

I don't think it is just coincidence, they both could have easily decided the game in LOS Angeles' favor.

the NFL needs to quit trying to make the LA market happen.

The rams aren't going to compete with the Lakers and USC football.

That's why we need to punk them out hard tonight.

Exactly. It sounds to me like the NFL knows this will be a highly watched game and they don't want boger throwing a flag every 2 minutes. Think people need to relax. At the very least, we got saved from having a really bad official.

Yea I think this is about the NFL realizing this is going to be a highly watched game and not wanting the refs to be a talking point.

I hope so. Sadly, I fear it is all about steering the game toward the desired outcome.

And those generally don't bode well for small market midwestern teams.

Possibly. But the more flags, the more likely a ref will steer an outcome. And Boger is usually in the top 3 for most flags. Boger called 18 penalties a game last year which is 3rd most (Blakeman 16.3)

This is a good point. Even if the refs don't try to steer it one way or the other, they're going to have orders to steer the points upward. Roger wants high-scoring games to excite the non-football fans, and this is his chance to let the modern NBAFL shine.

KY the jerseys.

If KC is up late...you better believe those "mystery" flags are going to fly...seems like defensive holding is their bailout method of choice on failed 3rd downs. They love ignoring holding calls on OL too...*see Steelers comeback in week 2*

On offense, they like calling holding on 1st down....pretty effective way to control momentum swings.

I'm getting a little worried about defensive holding every time we have a chance to stop them on 3rd down. The refs know we sorta hold on every play. They can just wait until the highest-leverage spots to call it.

Speaking of the Steelers...there were some...interesting...flags yesterday against Jax.

Even without all the conspiracy crap, why do this?

The NFL is basically doing something unprecedented. Why? The way this game has been handled has been ridiculous, IMO. All of this is stupid.

All conspiracy theories aside, if you are the NFL, and you have referees that do your games for you, then you, by your actions of letting them ref at this level, are making a statement that they are competant. By changing crews around and plucking different refs from different crews for a game between non conference opponents, you are making a statement that most of your refs aren't competant enough to do this game.

This reeks if you ask me. There are much bigger games than this one every season. Games between conference rivals, division rivals, etc. And all of a sudden they need to cherry pick refs for this game? It reeks of some sort of preference for a predetermined outcome.

y'all Infowars fans?

Well, this has never been done before from what I gather. So why now? It's done for playoff games, and that's it. Why hasn't it been done time after time for late in the year divisional games that are huge? Why this game. THis stinks, and there is no other way around that.

Both of us said "conspiracy theories aside".

So forget conspiracy theories.

What LEGITIMATE reason does the NFL have for doing this? It's just dumb.

Agreed.....no reason to do it for a regular season game

Maybe the complaints about the refereeing have started to take some sort of form beyond fans bitching about it to each other? What that form would be I don’t know, I’m just throwing out a possibility.

I think they just know that a Monday night game of two 9-1 teams, featuring two of the young gun top QB's is going to have a huge audience and they just want to get it right.

I mean, I know, not as fun as a huge conspiracy, but, you know...

Exactly. There is no legitimate reason for the NFL to do this, particularly for this game. I mean, aside from it being two 9-1 teams, this really isn't that big of a game. Unless of course, you are trying to make sure that there is a certain outcome for a future game to take place. It freaking smells.

I'm starting to hate primetime games, it seems the refs always try to keep the game close for either ratings or vegas or both.

Well, I guess we know why the All Star Ref$ were assembled, don't we?

Haha, 2 pathetic calls that really weren't even close.

Brought in to **** us square in the ass in the name of promoting LA.

Color me butt ****ing shocked.

holy shit ****ed

Hey NFL? You could make it a little less obvious ya know.

Bunch of Butt****ing clown zebras.