NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has offered his yearly defense of the league’s officials and its officiating.
Goodell spoke to reporters in his annual Super Bowl conference on Monday, having previously backed the refs in an interview with NBC’s Mike Tirico in January, and sang pretty much the same song.
“In professional sports and all sports, officiating is part of that. I think in the NFL, the level of scrutiny is at the highest I’ve ever seen it,” he said. “That’s part of our popularity. I understand that. It’s part of the technology. You all do such a great job that you see more than you could ever see in officiating. The game is faster.
“I think our officials do a great job. They are superior. But at the end of the day, no one is perfect. Whether it’s all of us that watch the games or play the games or coach the games or the officials. We have to continue to try to get better. We have to work, use technology wherever we can to try to improve their performance.”
Of course, you’d struggle to find many fans who agree with Goodell’s take on the state of the league’s officiating. But you can expect him to keep repeating this defense every year, it’s not like he’s going to throw refs under the bus in public.
We can only hope he lets them have it behind closed doors.
We’re also hoping the refs don’t dominate the conversation after this year’s Super Bowl the way they did in 2023.
