Officiating in the NFL: What happened?

I don't know about anybody else, but I've found myself experiencing some downright sickening deja vu this NFL football season.

What happened? It's like we're back in the days of replacement referees, all of a sudden.

All season long, everybody -- myself, included -- was very concerned about how things might go with respect to players adjusting to new rules, but as it turns out, it wasn't the players or the new rules that ultimately proved to be the problem. The real problem turned out to be officiating crews who don't seem to know any of the rules, new or old.

I can't believe some of the things I saw this football season that, frankly, should never happen. I've never watched a full season of football and seen so many blatantly missed calls in my life.

Everything from simple holding or pass interference calls -- the rules for which haven't changed in decades -- to more obscure fouls like the new rule prohibiting linemen from pushing one another from behind in an effort to block field goals.

I can understand missing the call on some of those newer, more obscure plays, but there's just no excuse for some of the things that have been seen in the NFL this year. There's no excuse, in my book, for a trained NFL official to miss a blatant holding, pass interference or false start foul.

But guess what. I saw several of all three this season.

When it comes to the new rules against high hits, everybody thought it would be the players who would have trouble adjusting, but as it turns out, they've actually done pretty well. Officials, on the other hand, have certainly taken that rule change and run with it.

There were several occasions this year where I saw players make blatantly illegal hits and not get called for it, but I also saw a few questionable calls on plays that even the league later came out to say were legal. Now, don't get me wrong, I realize the players continuing to make the illegal hits don't get a free pass just because the penalty wasn't called, but I really think the officials are the ones who have pretty clearly done the worse job on that one, since players seem to be adjusting pretty well, for the most part.

And as I mentioned already, things like that aren't what really bugs me, anyway. It's the blatantly missed calls on fouls that have been in the game for as long as anyone can remember.

I'll take an example from this past weekend's game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Diego Chargers. In the final seconds of regulation, the Chiefs lined up to kick what could have been the game-winning field goal, but fell short when Ryan Succop missed the 41-yard attempt.

Well, that miss shouldn't have counted.

Not only did the Chargers commit that new, obscure foul of pushing from behind on the play, but they also lined up with seven players on one side of the center. To my knowledge, it's always constituted an illegal formation when the defense puts more than six players on one side of the center on a field goal or extra point, but the 5-yard penalty wasn't called, sending the game into overtime.

And in another game this season, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was standing on the sideline watching a kickoff return by the Baltimore Ravens and was standing so close to the field that he was nearly run over by both the returner and an official. In his efforts to get out of the way, Tomlin stepped onto the field, forcing the returner to change direction and probably preventing a touchdown.

No foul was called on the play, even though that is a blatant example of unsportsmanlike conduct.

Things like that have always irked me because I've always been a "by the book" kind of guy who believes rules should be enforced, as written, all the time, but honestly, it's been far more than just missed penalty calls that have bothered me this season. Probably even worse than the penalties that should never be missed, other calls such as turnovers, complete or incomplete passes and things like that -- some of which are reviewed automatically --have been botched by this year's officiating crews.

Sunday's Chiefs game provided one particularly harsh example of that. During overtime, San Diego was faced with a fourth-and-short and elected to fake a punt, ultimately resulting in Eric Weddle running for a first down.

The problem is, not only did replays clearly show the spot was wrong, but those same replays also showed Weddle fumbling the ball and the Chiefs recovering it for a turnover. The play was never reviewed and the turnover was negated by the officiating crew making the call that Weddle's progress had been stopped and he had reached the line to gain.

The Chargers went on to march their way down the field and kick what turned out to be the game-winning field goal.

And in another game just last week, there was a now-famous example of a play I see nearly every week now.

During the Denver Broncos' 37-13 win over the Houston Texans, Peyton Manning threw what was ruled to be his 50th touchdown pass of the season to Eric Decker. Well, it wasn't a catch.

I knew as soon as I saw it, Decker bobbled the ball on his way out of the back of the end zone, which makes the pass incomplete, by rule. The officials on the field and in the replay booth didn't see it that way, though,and the touchdown was counted.

Upon further review, NFL officials came out later and said the call was wrong and the catch shouldn't have counted.

That sort of play happened at least once in nearly every game I watched this season and it really bothers me. Especially with the new rules that make every turnover and scoring play subject to immediate review, there's simply no excuse for such calls being missed.

I get it that when I'm sitting in my living room watching football on TV, it's easy for me to sit here and say these things, but these people are trained officials who should have the knowledge and experience to get the calls right a lot more often than they seemed to this season. I'm not quite disgusted enough with what the NFL is becoming to stop watching just yet, but if this trend continues in the direction its headed, I might get there, before too long.