For comparison on penalties and gametimes through six weeks of 2013 season, scroll to bottom of story.
By Bill Bradley, contributing editor
Al Riveron has been with the NFL for nine seasons as on-field official and the last two as the senior director of officiating, which is second-in-command to NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino.
Riveron is part of the crew that watches over all on-field issues every game day from the Art McNally Gameday Central at the league headquarters in New York. This season his role has changed in which he and Blandino are consulting with the on-field officials about replay reviews in real time, helping to keep consistency for all calls.
The Havana, Cuba, native talked with NFL Evolution on Thursday about the changes in Gameday Central, how players are adapting to this season's points of emphasis on rules and issues involving player health and safety.
How different is the Gameday Central now that it is involved in the decision-making process of replay reviews?
The difference is, as you know, we are consulting on replays. We're confirming scores and we are confirming turnovers. Let's talk about the 1 p.m. (ET Sunday) window, which is probably the busiest. We have a technician that sits at every station at every game. He or she watches the games. They take notes for every game on things like defenseless player hits, fouls -- just different noteworthy situations that we come up with. When there's a situation where there has to be a confirmation or there's a replay review, Dean or myself will go over, put on the headset, take a look at the play. Once we confirm it, we pass the information along to the replay official at the game sites, and then he passes it along to the referee and then we play football. If there is a situation where we feel we need to stop the game, we will. We'll bring the referee over, consult with him, and between the three of us we make a decision.
Has the league's involvement in replay reviews made the process go quicker?
Actually it has. Time-wise, we've cut down to about a minute and a half as far as the length of the reviews. The reason why is when we see there might be a review taking place, we're already looking at all of the feeds the network has -- and they're sending them to us (in New York). In the time it takes the referee to speak to the coach, find out exactly what it is he wants to review, make the announcement, stop the game and walk over to the replay booth, we already have had the opportunity to look at some of these play and formulate an idea. When the referee comes over, we are already in communication the replay official (stationed in the press box). Instead of going through each and every single shot that we get, we probably narrow it down to two or three shots and say, "Show (the referee) these. Based on these two or three shots, we can make a simple, quick decision.
Has there been a time when more than two calls have to be made at once? If so, how have you and Dean Blandino handled that in Gameday Central?
Knock on wood. We haven't had any time when we've had more than two. We did a study last year and there were only two times where we had three (replay reviews) going on at one time. That was in the 1 p.m. (ET) window. As it turned out, one time that we had three going on at once we could have had could have gone to the next replay and maybe delayed one game 5 or 10 seconds. We haven't encountered that situation yet (this season) and hopefully we won't.
Did the NFL have this process already in mind last year as games were played?
The conversations already had been going on, so we were diligent in taking some notes and doing some studies as to how things could have gone if we gone into this program a year sooner. The big thing, for consistency purposes, it is now basically two people making decisions. We've gone from 17 referees to two people making decisions. It's not so much the time, because fans, players and everyone demands consistency. That's what we're after.
How have the referees received it the changes?
Great. The referees are on board because they have one more eye, one more person looking at (each play). It's really a consultation between the referee, the replay official and us here in New York.
Have there been any instances where the referees have disagreed during a replay review?
There have been some situations where the referee has said, "Can you show me that again?" At the end, we all agree as to what we're going to do.
What trends are we seeing in rules this season? Are there some issues that we should expect to be discussed by the competition committee?
Big topic of conversation, obviously, has been the fouls by the defense for illegal contact, defensive holding. On the other side of the coin, we also have an emphasis on offensive pass interference. There has been a spike in all three. Penalties are up about 2 1/2 penalties a game. But actual game time is down between four and five minutes.
After six weeks, are defenders getting the hint that downfield contact is a point of emphasis this season?
The numbers are still going up (See chart below.). They're way up from last year. ... We knew going in (to the season) that because of these rules, we would see a spike on both sides of the line -- on the illegal contact, defensive holding and offensive pass interference. That was going to be a given. But we already have seen the players adjusting. The numbers have come down from the preseason. And week-to-week, we are seeing the adjustment in the players. It's also been an adjustment for us because we've been training our officials since the spring. ... We have been continuously sending them game film on what to look for, key games and certain situations that they need to be aware of in order to call these fouls properly.
The low block continues to be a hot topic, especially with Arizona Cardinals defensive end Calais Campbell being injured on such an illegal play. Has there been any talk again about eliminating the low block completely?
That conversation when I've been part of the (Competition Committee) the last two years has come up. Do we eliminate the low block? Do we eliminate the chop block? This year we made a tweak to the rule where you cannot block from the side and then roll into the back of a player. ... because we had two or three really major injuries (from this) last year. Of course, the No. 1 thing the league always looks out for is player safety. So the Committee felt that should at least alleviate that situation. But (the Committee) honestly looks at chop blocks. They honestly look at low blocks. One of the things that was looked at very seriously was this: Now that we have the so-called "target area" (for legal hits) -- and the players are adjusting really, really well to that -- there was some concern that the players were going low and maybe causing leg injuries. We did a study of that also and all we saw was two major injuries last year from players going low. They were legal hits. There was nothing wrong with them.
Are there any player health and safety issues on the field that don't seem to be as prevalent compared with a few seasons ago?
When we talk about defenseless players, you can see week in and week out the players really have made an adjustment. Dean and I both get out to training camps. This year I happened to be out in Seattle. Pete Carroll and the Seahawksput out a tape on tackling. When you go out to different training camps, you can see the emphasis on player safety not only when you hit a player, but the emphasis on the player doing the hitting or tackling so that he doesn't get hurt also. The players really are adjusting well in that regard). We not only have the best players in the world, but we have0ap3000000412238 the smartest athletes, too.
2014 PENALTIES, GAME TIMES COMPARED WITH 2013
Through Week 6
Illegal Contact: -- 2013: 16; 2014: 63.
Defensive Holding -- 2013: 63; 2014: 138.
Offensive Pass Interference -- 2013: 32; 2014: 47.
Illegal Use of Hands -- 2013: 36; 2014: 93.
Unnecessary Roughness -- 2013: 113; 2014: 94
Taunting/Unsportsmanlike -- 2013: 27; 2014: 33.
Total fouls
2013 – 1347 (14.6 per game, 92 games)
2014 – 1538 (16.9 per game, 91 games)
Game time
2013 -- 3:08:46.
2014 -- 3:06:26
Statistics provided by NFL Communications