Mike Pereira understands that technology is a necessary evil when it comes to improving NFL officiating — but he believes that officials are actually worse at their jobs because of it.
"I don’t think officiating is as good as it was, now, with replay," Pereira, the NFL's former vice president of officiating and current rules analyst for FOX's NFL broadcasts, told Covers in an exclusive interview. "I think it’s actually hurt officiating to a degree, because it’s made them, in many cases — especially the new guard of officials — somewhat reliant on technology, somewhat hesitant, knowing that they could get bailed out. It has protected them in some cases."
NFL officials have been given a major boost from technological advancements — and more are on the way, with reports suggesting the NFL will consider using virtual line-to-gain technology as early as next season. Pereira, who became an NFL official in 1996 and served in a variety of roles until retiring in 2009, believes too much tech impedes officials' ability to do the job.
"They’re not really allowed to officiate the game on their own anymore," he told Covers. "And I do think that hurts them.
"That being said, they get more calls right because of replay. So it’s one of those things to me that, once you bring it in, it’s not going away. And it’s going to be more involved in the game. And if your goal is to make a game officiated perfectly — which is impossible — then you use it more and more. And if you can figure out a way to use it in such a way that it doesn’t kill the pace of the game, then you might as well."
Pereira is particularly attuned to the mental aspect of the job and feels for officials who believe they have made the right call, only to have it corrected immediately — and in some cases, inconsequentially.
"It’s gotten to the point right now where you could get a 31-yard kickoff return out of the end zone, and they mark the ball at the 31," Pereira told Covers. "And then this official, who thought he got a good spot at the 31-yard line, then hears in his ear, “Put the ball on the 32.” Move the ball a yard? On a kickoff return?
"I think you have to measure the good with the bad. And I always concern myself with the psyche of the official who thinks he’s done something really good, and then they tell him to move the ball by a yard. It’s tough. But ultimately, I get it. Whether you’re a fan, whether you’re a player, whether you’re a coach, whether you’re a gambler, you want to see the play officiated correctly. And if it takes this technology to do it, then use it to its nth degree."
"Sky Judge" coming soon?
Pereira told Covers he appreciates commissioner Roger Goodell committing to an expanded replay assist feature and would like to see the NFL employ an "eye in the sky" whose primary function is to not only correct incorrect flags thrown, but to instantly identify plays where a flag should have been thrown (but wasn't).
"I think Roger saying that they’re going to expand the replay assist model is a good thing," Pereira said. "The conversations I’ve had with the league, most of them are, “We’re going to expand replay assist and let them pick up a flag for something that was called.” But there didn’t seem to be the interest in replay being able to call something which should have been called, which was obvious to everyone.
"Creeping toward what they call “Sky Judge” — an eighth official, somebody that can interject quickly and say “Hey, you missed that facemask. It’s clear and obvious. Put the flag down.” I’m interested to see if the league is going to do that. It seems like a natural progression to me, if you’re going to keep using replay, and expanding replay."
Pereira is also mindful that fans have no interest in seeing games lengthened by a litany of review delays.
"I hope that they go full force and use it to its capability without letting it get too used, to where all of a sudden the pace of the game gets really slow and the number of interruptions becomes so cumbersome that the games last three-and-a-half hours instead of three hours and eight minutes," he said. "But we’ll see where it ends up."
Pereira on QBs subverting protection rules: "Football is a game of deceit"
Rules designed to protect quarterbacks have been hot-button topics throughout the 2024 season. Fans and opposing teams have lamented quarterbacks who have sought to take advantage of these rules by implementing fake slides, or snapping their heads back as contact with the defender is made.
Pereira acknowledges the tactics for what they are — and says they're all just part of the game.
"Are we gonna see more people flop? Look, I hope not, but if it’s successful, you will," he told Covers. "And (Chiefs quarterback) Patrick (Mahomes) is good at that, too. There is no question. Most quarterbacks try it. They don’t sell it as well as he does. The officials are aware of that, and they talk about that. When they talk about “unnecessary roughness,” they want to make sure that there is roughness. And so you try to judge how much the push causes the runner to go down. It is hard.
"But football is a game of deceit, right? When you really think about it, most sports are. When you talk about play-action passes, you’re faking a handoff to a back and trying to get the linebackers to commit one way or the other. Players and coaches, they’ll coach to the edge. They’ll go to the edge of the rule if they can. And hopefully they don’t go beyond the edge, and if they do, hopefully, it doesn’t get seen."
Characterizing football as "an unbelievably difficult game to officiate," Pereira defended NFL officials' track record despite his contention that the quality of their work has slipped in recent years.
"What makes me a good official now? I’m a good official now because a) I see it in slow motion, and b) I see it from above," he said. "These guys have to make calls and make decisions in real-time, looking through bodies, on the same level as the players, and sometimes it’s extremely tough. And sometimes you see that guy go down and you’re not sure. And you’d like to think that if you’re not sure, don’t throw (the flag) but your reaction is just to throw because you know something happened. And that’s why you hear a lot of people complain about it, and I understand it.
"But there are seven officials and 22 players. You cannot see it all. It’s impossible. You have an umpire and a referee in the offensive backfield trying to make decisions on holding on five different people: the center, two guards, and two tackles. There are rules that say, 'If there’s a double-team block here, forget that and go look at a single block.' It’s so unbelievably hard to officiate, and they really, statistically, do a very good job, yet it’s the mistakes that get made when the game’s on the line that people focus on."
Pereira has previously said that "more criticism is heaped on officials than anybody else involved in the game," and bristled at the notion that the NFL should release a game report or grades with correct and incorrect calls similar to that produced by the NBA (for calls in the last two minutes) and MLB (for balls and strikes). He also said that officials are held accountable at the end of every game – albeit, not in the way that fans or media might prefer.
"The referee is available to the media after every game," he told Covers. "There is a pool reporter that is assigned and if there is an issue that the media wants to clarify, the pool reporter interviews the referee and then he transcribes the answers and passes them out to the rest of the media."
Pereira on "rigged" theories: "Nobody told me what to call"
Pereira's defense of NFL officials extends to the notion that the NFL is rigged, or that certain teams and players see more favorable calls based on referee bias. The top team on the list is the Kansas City Chiefs, who face the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 59 on Sunday with their eye on a third straight NFL championship.
"Let’s cut to the chase — you get all these opinions, whether they’re calls that go the Chiefs’ way or whatever, and now the league wants the Chiefs to win," he told Covers. "Why? And the officials want the Chiefs to win? If you had any understanding about officiating, you would realize that there’s no such thing. It is not possible.
"I officiated; nobody told me what to call. I was the head of officiating; I never told them what to call. I never said, 'Officiate this team more tightly than the other team.' It’s one of the myths that involve officiating that are created by people that really don’t understand."
So why the perception that the Chiefs are the darlings of the NFL?
"They’re well-disciplined," Pereira said. "When you look at penalty prevention, where do you become a highly penalized team? Usually in the area of false starts, defensive offside, those types of what I call 'discipline penalties.' The Jets were a good one under a special teams coach named Mike Westhoff (who held the job from 2001-12). He coached penalty prevention. And the Jets were always a low-penalty team. And the Chiefs are the same way.
"Plus, they’re very creative. And Patrick himself can turn disaster into miracles like nobody that you ever see. And as you get more experience, and as you win like they do, you keep the game close even if you’re overmatched. You keep the game close until the last five minutes of the game, and then you have that ability to pull out the big play. If Philadelphia’s gonna win (Sunday), I feel like they’d better be two scores-plus ahead with five minutes to go. Because the Chiefs are just so good under the gun."
Super Bowl "a celebration" for chosen officials
With all the scrutiny, second-guessing, and criticism NFL officials absorb, it's easy to forget that they, too, have aspirations of making it to the Super Bowl. And given how unglamorous the job is during the regular season, Pereira says reaching the pinnacle of the profession is particularly satisfying.
"During the season, they leave home on Friday, maybe early Saturday morning, they go to the game site, they have a meeting Saturday, they have dinner on their own with their group on Saturday night, then they go work the game Sunday and then they go home," Pereira explained. "It’s a solitary life. They don’t go with family, they’re just basically weekend warriors that can’t drink. They have all these restrictions on them. They get drug tested – and they will for the Super Bowl.
"But the Super Bowl is different. For the officials, the Super Bowl is a celebration. It’s an achievement. They’ve worked for however many years, from when they started working a Pop Warner youth football game. When they aspire to be an NFL official, they aspire to work the Super Bowl, to get that plum. So when they get it, they start making plans – with wives, and significant others, and daughters, and sons, and aunts, and uncles, and mom and dad. They all want to bring their family, all of those that have sacrificed their time away from him, having him on the road."
Pereira added that officials who work the Super Bowl get something that 50% of the game's participants don't.
"They get a ring," he told Covers. "Just like players get a ring. And boy, do they flaunt that ring. I mean, they flaunt it on every airplane ride, everywhere they go. And people will come up to them and go, 'Is that a Super Bowl ring?' And they’d say 'Oh, yes, would you like to put it on?' It’s like their badge of honor.
"Though I was their boss for 12 years, in terms of me vs. them, it’s the ring that I never got. And they did."
