Mike Florio

Now, the PR battle has already begun between the league and the officials union, and the officials union, as it typically does, is doing a very poor job of engaging the NFL on the PR front.

I just got off of a media call where they're talking about these proposals, and Jeff Miller, the head of PR, was saying, we've been trying for two years.

We've been trying to improve officiating.

They're resisting us.

I think it's more complicated than that, but the league is prepared to go back to

glorified amateurs with support from a replay system that is currently broken.

And they think that's going to be the fix in an age where every one of these plays and every one of these games means more than it ever did before.

It's a disaster waiting to happen.

People don't understand how it would look if officials were full-time.

Right, exactly.

you have access to them all year long.

You can come up with AI programs, virtual reality programs that they can get reps.

Someone told me not that long ago from the league that by the end of the season, the mistakes become less glaring because they've been doing it week after week after week.

So if you find a way to keep that saw as sharp as it can be in the off season, you don't have that.

And there are ways.

Virtual reality would be an awesome way

to get the officials to see all the different possible crazy things that could happen so they're ready for anything.

And during the season, instead of them flying home to practice law or be school teachers or run a plumbing supply company like Gene Steratore did and probably still does about 70 miles up the road from me here in Washington, PA, you get them all together in a central location.

They all live in Dallas.

They all live in Kansas City.