instead of criticizing officials make some full-time and help them do their jobs

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll: Instead of criticizing officials, make some full-time and help them do their jobs better

http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seahawks/seahawks-coach-pete-carroll-instead-of-criticizing-officials-make-some-full-time-and-help-them-do-their-jobs-better/

Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said at the NFL league meetings Wednesday that rather than simply criticize officials, the league needs to do more to help them do their jobs better, including making some full-time.

But Wednesday at the NFL league meetings they were part of a team of coaches using the platform of their hour-long meetings with the media here to loudly state their belief that the league should consider having at least some full-time officials.

Carroll said he has come to that opinion after deciding that rather than simply criticizing the officials when mistakes are made, the goal should be to do everything possible to improve how the games are called.

Arians echoed a similar thought, saying that officials are not held to the same standard as coaches and players since they are not professionals and that training them during the week might improve the quality of their work. Carroll said other coaches feel similarly. (Officials, while able to earn salaries as high as $209,000 by 2019, remain part-time and typically work full-time jobs outside of football).

“I’ve seen things a little bit differently than I’ve seen it in the past,’’ Carroll said Wednesday. “There’s a huge focus on officiating. And we’re part of the discussion. We’re part of feeding that discussion. When you really get down to it, our officials are the best in the world. There’s nobody better equipped to do what they’re doing. There’s nobody that cares more about it than our guys. They want to do a great job. And they’re busting their tails to get it right. And all of our focus is to try to enhance the ability of our officials to do a good job.’’

“…. The thing that we should supporting is our officials need to be full-time. This discussion has been out there since (former Minnesota coach) Bud Grant brought it up in 1980-something.’’

Carroll said the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the officials — which was memorably ratified after the 2012 lockout — allows for the league to hire as many as 17 full-time officials immediately.

“We’re trying to get these guys full-time with this simple thought that if they’re full-time, they can work year-round at being the best they can possibly be,’’ Carroll said. “Right now, they’re doing everything that they can to be great. But the format for it is guys got other jobs, they’ve got other involvement, and so they can’t spend their entire year at it. But they’re still working, and they’re the best we have.’’

Carroll said attempting to fix the problems with officiating will be his focus going forward rather than just complaining.

“I’m coming away from these meetings with a different perspective of it,’’ he said. ”And that doesn’t mean I’m not going to gripe about them or whatever in my own mind at times in games. But the fact is they’re great at what they do, and they should be recognized for that. And we should continue to support them in every way that we can. And that’s why we’re advocating that we make them full time and give them the very best opportunity to be the very best equipped that they could possibly be to help our game in every way. And that’s all there. But all we talk about is the other side of it so that’s where I’m coming away from it. I think it’s something that we should focus on differently. And it has nothing to do with the officials. It has to do with the game. I think it’s the right way to look at it.”

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said full-time officials “is not a new issue’’ and that doing so “at least in a limited form’’ could be possible while offering no timeline on when that might be done.

“That’s something we fought for in our last labor negotiations with the officials is to be able to hire a limited number of officials, so that we would have the ability to have them in the office during the week,’’ Goodell said. “We could develop greater consistency, and consistency is really the core of what we’ve talked about all week here in officiating. That’s what we want to deliver to our teams.’’

“…. We’re proud of the job they do and we want to try to give them more resources and more ability to improve, just as the game of football continues to improve.’’