NFL Rule Changes Could Potentially Institute a 'Sky Judge' Into the Officiating Crew

SI's Albert Breer shares his point of view on the sky judge and how they would function as a part of the officiating crew

Coaches like Andy Reid of the Kansas City Chiefs and John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens have been outspoken about their desire for the NFL to institute a Sky Judge to become a part of the officiating crew for NFL games. SI senior writer Albert Breer has more on the purpose of the Sky Judge.

Video Transcript: 

Madelyn Burke: As the NFL examines potential rule changes, one possible modification that John Harbaugh and Andy Reid have pushed for is a sky judge. I'm joined now by then QB senior writer Albert Breer. Albert, why is this so important to the coaches?

Albert Breer: Well, first and foremost, they want to get calls on the field right. I mean, and that's this goes back to the Saints calling the 2018 NFC championship game. That's the priority, the integrity of the game, the integrity of the way the game is called. But beyond just that, I think that they really wanted to build a bridge between their body of people and the officials. And we really saw things sort of go sideways last year with the way the pass interference thing went. And so the idea here was, we don't want to have somebody overruling the officials - we want to give them an extra resource. And to put this in the simplest terms. 

They wanted to give the officials what I have, what you have, what everyone watching this has at home. Which is, you're sitting on the couch, you're gonna get eight, ten, twelve different HD angles on every single play. You know, the big question for the coaches was: If everyone else has that, why do the officials on the field not get the benefit of it? So this proposal would give them the benefit of that. It would add an eighth official to the crew. 

This person would not have the ability to overrule an official, make a call on the field or even interrupt the game. Really, his window to communicate with the head referee would be in the first fifteen seconds of the play clock. Outside of that, the head referee can use him as a resource as needed. And really, you know the idea here, Madelyn, it's not to take care of the fifty one forty nine calls, the fifty five forty five call. It's to get the obvious calls that may go wrong on the field, right. And I think that if you listen to enough of the coaches, they see this as a way of helping the officials, as not fighting against the officials. And the most important thing, again, is trying to get the most important calls in every single game, right.