I think a lot of what we’re seeing missed are plays the refs purposefully don’t call every time. Like cops that could pull people over all the time for speeding in 55 mph zones. Sure they could pull over everyone, but what good would that do? Sure they could raise the speed limit, but that would likely cause even more harm because those limits apply to everyone, good drivers and bad.
Similarly there’s an art to calling NFL penalties so they get the point across but don’t destroy the rhythm or fairness of the game. And like with every artist, refs have good performances and bad ones. The more plays and the more complex each play gets, the harder it is to pull off that balancing act.
They can call DPI or Offensive Holding on every play, so suppose they did? Passing game grinds to a halt, there’s a period of adjustment, and then America starts tuning out a bunch of 16-7 games. They don’t call the penalties, then the same thing happens but for different reasons as teams can hold off pass rushers but no WR’s can get open because they are held and interfered with.
So all they can strive for is to call each game consistently within itself and somewhere uniformly in between. Don’t overbalance calls one way or another. You see makeup calls all the time, and I bet the refs have a running count each game and know when they are up or down.
They also (and way too often) give too much benefit of a doubt to the best teams as determined by record and reputation as a kind of reward for being consistently good (or well liked).
Bottom line, I unfortunately don’t see how it can change. You don’t want lasers and AI tracking every bit of contact for accuracy any more than you want those same lasers and AI tracking every human being on the street or car in the road.
