Randy Moss blames the referees for plummeting NFL ratings
Randy Moss was extremely candid about the NFL’s officiating problem on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown. The future Hall of Famer says the league’s decision not to have full-time referees is causing significant damage to the product on the field.
“I think they should be held accountable like any player or any coach in the National Football League. My question is: Aren’t we in this together? Coaches, players — the referees are there too. I remember at the beginning of the week I think Roger Goodell said something, made a statement about that they weren’t going to make them full-time officials, and me at Matt (Hasselbeck) we were talking in our production meeting about “Well, if they’re not full-time officials and they have second jobs then that means they cannot really focus on the job that we need them to focus on. You know, ratings are dropping very fast in this National Football League but why each and every week are we talking about the officiating?”
There’s no mistaking what’s happening. The NFL is struggling for the first time in recent memory. Officials are making obvious mistakes, the league is stripping fun from the league at every turn, and the product on the field hasn’t been as compelling as it was in the past. Couple all this with more and more people cord-cutting, and it’s an issue.
Fixing officiating would be one small step towards resolving this.
