Blandino on New Rules and ABS

Dean Blandino returns to the Rich Eisen Show for a full interview on the NFL's officiating labor dispute, two new replay rules, and the early returns on baseball's automated ball-strike system. It is a wide-ranging conversation from one of the clearest voices in the rules world.

Rich opens with Roger Goodell's comments at the owners meeting. Negotiations between the NFL and the referees' union have not progressed the way the league hoped. Goodell said the league is preparing to play, which is shorthand for preparing to use replacement officials if it comes to that.

Blandino lived through two lockouts while at the league office. He does not mince words. Labor disputes suck. The specter of the Fail Mary, the infamous blown call during the 2012 replacement-ref era, still hangs over every conversation. The union is using it as leverage. The league is betting that replacement officials would hold up better this time.

Blandino outlines the union's argument. NFL officials are paid well, but not at the level of MLB, NHL, or NBA officials. The league counters that those officials work more games and are full-time. The league experimented with a dozen full-time officials in the last CBA and saw no measurable performance difference.

On accountability, Blandino makes a point that should not get lost. The current CBA has a three-year probationary window where the league can let an official go without cause. Without that window, firing underperforming officials means grievances and paper trails. That probationary period matters.

Two new rules passed at the owners meetings. The first lets the Art McNally Game Day Central command center correct clear and obvious missed calls, but only during replacement-ref games. Fourteen owners voted to extend it to regular officials too, short of the 24 needed. Blandino expects that to become a test case.

The second rule lets league personnel communicate with on-field officials about ejections even when no flag was thrown. The Josh Jobe punch against Stefon Diggs in the Super Bowl is the avatar for why this exists.

The conversation closes on baseball's ABS system. Blandino notes that one umpire got overturned five times in a single game. He warns that shaming umpires publicly is a hard road. The strike zone is three-dimensional in real life and two-dimensional in ABS.

Good technology. Complicated application.