Zebra Watch #9
The NFL has reached the midway point and according to the league their officials are having a bang-up season.
Of course, don’t tell that to Chiefs TE Tony Gonzalez who was hit with an offensive pass interference flag last week that should never have been thrown. Don’t ask DE Turk McBride who got docked again for a borderline roughing the passer call. And, don’t ask QB Tyler Thigpen who didn’t get a roughing the passer call when he was already on the ground and 300 pounds of Ryan Sims landed on his head.
Consistency remains a major problem in the NFL and it’s especially visible when it comes to protecting the quarterback. The league has made that an understandable priority, but they are all over the place in their rulings.
According to the league, out of 18,118 plays through the first eight weeks of the season, the NFL says 97.6 percent were properly officiated. That marks only a .1 percent drop from this same point in 2007.
“We have approximately 155 plays a game, so you’re talking about averaging three mistakes a game,” said Mike Pereira, the league’s top man in charge of the officials. “More so, they’re calls we didn’t make that we should have. That makes up probably two-thirds of that figure, but it’s right on line (with previous seasons).”
You can read more of his comments this week on FOXSPORTS.COM right here.
Here’s the one thing Pereira said that makes me shiver. In talking about player safety, he said of his officials:
“If you have any doubt, throw (the flag),” Pereira said. “I’m encouraging our guys to do that. That’s where we need to be in terms of player safety.”
There’s a fine line between player safety and taking the guts out of the game. The NFL needs to make sure it does not go too far, or they might as well make the sport flag football.
Here’s how Pereira’s boys did last week:
WEEK #9
| Â Rank | Â Referee | Penalties- Yards |
Declined/ Offsetting |
 Home |  Visitors |
| 1. | Bill Carollo |
3-20 |
1 |
1-0 |
2-20 |
| 2. | Mike Carey |
5-35 |
1 |
4-20 |
1-15 |
| 3. | Bill Leavy |
6-56 |
2 |
2-15 |
4-41 |
| 4. | Pete Morelli |
7-61 |
0 |
3-25 |
4-36 |
| 5. | Walt Coleman |
8-55 |
1 |
3-20 |
5-35 |
| 6. | Carl Cheffers |
9-119 |
3 |
5-78 |
4-41 |
| 7. | Walt Anderson |
11-95 |
1 |
7-55 |
4-40 |
| 8. | Tony Corrente |
12-123 |
0 |
10-81 |
2-42 |
| Â | Ron Winter |
12-79 |
1 |
7-45 |
5-34 |
| 10. | Jeff Triplette |
14-110 |
1 |
4-41 |
10-69 |
| Â | Ed Hochuli |
14-107 |
2 |
7-60 |
7-47 |
| 12. | Scott Green |
15-79 |
4 |
8-37 |
7-42 |
| 13. | Jerome Boger |
17-120 |
5 |
8-65 |
9-55 |
| Â | Terry McAulay |
17-125 |
6 |
5-39 |
12-86 |
Home/Away numbers in red for winning team
2008 OVERALL
| Â Rank | Â Referee | Â Games | Avg. Flags |
Penalties- Yards |
 Home |  Visitors |
| 1. | Walt Coleman |
8 |
9.3 |
74-580 |
27 |
47 |
| 2. | Mike Carey |
6 |
9.7 |
58-491 |
31 |
27 |
| 3. | Carl Cheffers |
7 |
10 |
70-604 |
41 |
29 |
| 4. | Gene Steratore |
8 |
10.3 |
82-637 |
36 |
46 |
| 5. | Scott Green |
8 |
10.75 |
86-606 |
40 |
46 |
| 6. | Al Riveron |
8 |
10.9 |
87-860 |
49 |
38 |
| 7. | Pete Morelli |
7 |
11 |
77-561 |
36 |
41 |
| 8. | Bill Leavy |
7 |
11.1 |
78-651 |
35 |
43 |
| 9. | Bill Carollo |
8 |
11.7 |
94-751 |
44 |
50 |
| 10. | Terry McAulay |
8 |
12 |
96-836 |
51 |
45 |
| 11. | John Parry |
7 |
12.7 |
89-678 |
45 |
44 |
| Â | Ed Hochuli |
7 |
12.7 |
89-846 |
46 |
43 |
| 13. | Tony Corrente |
8 |
12.9 |
103-969 |
52 |
51 |
| 14. | Walt Anderson |
8 |
13 |
104-789 |
48 |
56 |
| 15. | Ron Winter |
8 |
14.8 |
118-972 |
61 |
57 |
| 16. | Jerome Boger |
8 |
15 |
120-886 |
68 |
52 |
| 17. | Jeff Triplette |
8 |
15.1 |
121-934 |
65 |
56 |
I have made note of the poor call on Tony G. & have heard that the opontants will scramble all over the REF.s — Tonys good but he always pushes off ,and that all you can do is pray someone will say something to stop this . To just pray for this is no different than going to a cemetery at 12 oclock and blow horns loud , still there wont be any response . These bad calls and no calls are killing this team and its making it feel like its thier fault .The last game should have been 42 to 17 , CHIEFS !
i agree with you jim dont know how you came up with your score but i like it we won a playoff game against the colts but bad zebra call took a td away from tony and colts win go figure how bout marshall pushing the defender down and scoreing the win for the donks last night we are not a hot commodity team i dont even think the nfl likes the chiefs or why would donkeys get so many primetime game and we get none last two years
At the time of that call , it was 28 to 17 , and that one handed catch was a first down near the 30 yard line , that put KC back 3rd and 14 ,on about the 50 . That made it to hard to try and go at it ,so I think it was a 4yd run,& kick ,which went to far and them on the 20. Had KC scored (35points)–total! Then KC kicks off ,and would have better odds at getting the ball back PLUS they would be on a roll , You dont know how crushing it is to get a P— POUR call after an ALL PRO one handed catch and gets called for nothing more than his hand barley touched the defender ( that did not know where the ball was ) as he was trying to reach a hard catch . If that play was not screwed by someone that not doing a proper job at what he was being paid to do , that would have been THE play of the game ,Including Tylers!