Fans aren't the only people frustrated by NFL refereeing. The players aren't particularly happy, either.
The Athletic surveyed 81 players on the state of officiating across the league, with 57 respondents (70.4 percent) giving officials a grade between 4 and 7 out of 10.
"Either they're missing obvious calls or they're calling everything," one player said. "There's no in-between, and it varies so much between crews that you never know what to expect."
NFL officials are part-time employees, and many of them work regular 9-to-5 jobs during the week before games. One player who rated the officials a 2 out of 10 said the NFL needs to make referees full-time employees in order to improve their consistency.
This is not a new suggestion, as it's been made by several members of the media in the past.
NFL referees have their own union, but the league has not offered enough incentives to create a full-time agreement between the two sides.
The NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball all have full-time officials, though there are some part-time referees as well.
Of course, the NFL is a different animal because teams play only one game per week. But those off days in between games could be spent reviewing calls with officials, providing additional training and running through game scenarios if referees were full-time employees rather than having them work day jobs and swooping in over the weekend.
Given the NFL's massive revenue every year, the players and league should be more than willing to shave off a bit of their windfall in exchange for a more consistently officiated game
