Speaker 1: This is the OTP presented by Far Bureau Health Plans.
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Speaker 1: They've been backing Tennesseeans for nearly eighty years. We welcome
Speaker 1: in head coach Brian Callahan for his usual visit. Brian,
Speaker 1: A lot of these mondays with us have been tough
Speaker 1: for you, and we must just for things they have.
Speaker 1: But you guys keep it, you guys enjoy it. We try.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you a serious question. How have
Speaker 1: you been able to keep perspective through all of this.
Speaker 2: It's a challenge, you know, because everything is so weak
Speaker 2: to week in the league and you and you feel
Speaker 2: every loss so intensely, you know, and then they pile
Speaker 2: up and there's just it just feels like it's a
Speaker 2: bit of a beat down. So it is difficult to
Speaker 2: keep the perspective. But I do have I do try
Speaker 2: to focus on the things that one I can control
Speaker 2: and two that that are positive. And so you keep
Speaker 2: trying to find positives and all the experiences, keep trying
Speaker 2: to build the team and messaging to the team the
Speaker 2: way that you want it to be done. And ultimately
Speaker 2: with an eye towards you know what's to come, and
Speaker 2: you know another personnel cycle and another offseason and another year.
Speaker 2: For me, the amount of growth I've gone through this
Speaker 2: year has been pretty remarkable, and there's a lot of
Speaker 2: things that I'll I'll continue to adapt in evolve as
Speaker 2: I learned how to be a head coach and learned
Speaker 2: a lot of hard lessons this year, and those are
Speaker 2: the things that sort of keep me going. The challenge
Speaker 2: of it is what really keeps me going.
Speaker 1: Is the challenge of being consistent. The number one thing
Speaker 1: you have to focus upon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an emotional game. You know, there's a lot
Speaker 2: of emotions that run in wins and losses. And I
Speaker 2: think I've always felt like the best teams handle winning
Speaker 2: the same way they handle losing, and I try to
Speaker 2: be that even amidst a lot of losses this year's
Speaker 2: you still try to be critical of performance and but
Speaker 2: but coach and encourage and keep keep moving forward and
Speaker 2: keep trying to get better. But those are the consistency part,
Speaker 2: I think is something that I've had to really focus
Speaker 2: on because you can get you can get lost in
Speaker 2: the negativity of it all sometimes and you have to
Speaker 2: work really hard to stay consistent when it gets really difficult.
Speaker 2: You know, it's easy to stay consistent when it's good, sure,
Speaker 2: but the you learn a lot about a lot of
Speaker 2: about people players, about how people react to adversity when
Speaker 2: things don't go the way you plan and and don't
Speaker 2: go as well as you want them to. But the
Speaker 2: consistency part is something that I work really hard at
Speaker 2: and I think I do a decent job of it.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's certainly not easy.
Speaker 3: I appreciate Mike asking a broad philosophical question. I am
Speaker 3: here to get down to brass tacks.
Speaker 1: I guess here I am.
Speaker 3: Have you decided who is going to be your quarterback
Speaker 3: this Sunday?
Speaker 1: Not yet.
Speaker 2: I'm actually leaning towards having both of them play at
Speaker 2: this point. To be honest, I'm not sure who's going
Speaker 2: to start or who's going to play when, but preliminarily
Speaker 2: thinking that that they both might on this week.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we'll see from that standpoint, getting a chance
Speaker 1: to play both guys, what do you think that gives
Speaker 1: you in the last game and gives you headed toward
Speaker 1: the off season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just one more shot to play good football for
Speaker 2: you know, Will has been on the on the bench
Speaker 2: for two games, and Mason's done some good things, but
Speaker 2: yet still haven't found a way to win the games
Speaker 2: that he's played, and so just give him one more
Speaker 2: chance to go out and play good football and see
Speaker 2: if see if they can improve on their performance. Ultimately,
Speaker 2: that's what we're looking for, is to find a way
Speaker 2: to win. We haven't won a lot of games and
Speaker 2: need to need to try to finish strong.
Speaker 3: As it pertains to injuries, are there any injured players
Speaker 3: that you're already ready to say they're not going to
Speaker 3: be playing on Sunday.
Speaker 2: I think it'll be hard for for Taji to clear
Speaker 2: the protocol fast enough to play Sunday. I'm not going
Speaker 2: to rule him out or by any means, but you know,
Speaker 2: concussions generally, it's generally a one game miss for the
Speaker 2: most part over a history, so I'm not counting on
Speaker 2: him being able to make it. Everybody else has a chance,
Speaker 2: and we'll see as the as the week pushes forward,
Speaker 2: some of the guys that missed this last week might
Speaker 2: have a chance to get back and play, So we'll see.
Speaker 2: I'm optimistic about a lot of them, but you never
Speaker 2: you never really know until you get out to practice
Speaker 2: by Wednesday, so too early to tell officially, but but
Speaker 2: optimistic on a couple of guys.
Speaker 1: Let's get back. Goes back up to Taj just a second.
Speaker 1: He showed something different in the game at Jacksonville. He
Speaker 1: showed he has the ability to be a lead back.
Speaker 2: Right he certainly did. He was a really impressive performance.
Speaker 2: You know, I think the the the tough part of
Speaker 2: it was I think he took a five yard loss
Speaker 2: in that last carry that knocked him off his hundred
Speaker 2: one hundred. So but yeah, he he performed fantastic. I mean,
Speaker 2: he looked explosive, He ran hard, he ran strong, he
Speaker 2: was physical, protected the ball great, put the ball in
Speaker 2: the right spots in the in the run game, and
Speaker 2: you know, we run for almost one hundred and sixty
Speaker 2: yards or whatever it was, and he was a large
Speaker 2: part of that. So a really impressive performance and then
Speaker 2: a bummer that that he couldn't finish it out because
Speaker 2: I thought he would have, you know, would have been
Speaker 2: a banner day for him on top of what he
Speaker 2: are he had so good to see for him. He's
Speaker 2: played really good football for us for the last month
Speaker 2: and that's really been positive.
Speaker 3: As we turn to the Houston Texans, we know that
Speaker 3: their playoff position is locked in, but we don't exactly
Speaker 3: know how much their starters are going to be playing
Speaker 3: on Sunday. Does that mean that for you, on both
Speaker 3: offense and defense, you have to have a pretty fluid
Speaker 3: game plan.
Speaker 2: I think you just you prepare like they're all gonna play,
Speaker 2: and then you just adjust from there. You know, that's
Speaker 2: that suits you. The The gist of it for us
Speaker 2: is that all their best players are gonna play, and
Speaker 2: if they don't, they don't. You know, I think they
Speaker 2: they've last played on Wednesday. It's a long layoff between
Speaker 2: there and the first playoff game for them. So you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not in their building. I don't coach
Speaker 2: the football team, but I do think that my perspective
Speaker 2: would be, you'd want some guys to play a little bit,
Speaker 2: you know, just to keep keep your keep your skills sharp,
Speaker 2: and get yourself ready to go to for the playoffs.
Speaker 2: And so we'll see, and I just will plan on
Speaker 2: like they're all gonna play, and if they don't, they don't.
Speaker 1: Well, And they've got some guys too, like mixing seven
Speaker 1: yards short of a thousand yards rushing. Collins is thirty
Speaker 1: two yards short of a thousand yards receiving, and those
Speaker 1: things matter too, very much, so for personal goals in
Speaker 1: some cases contractual goals as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those are all parts of the process. I mean,
Speaker 2: those are things that guys are aware of. It means
Speaker 2: something to them. They're they're very significant statistical markers that
Speaker 2: guys want to hit.
Speaker 1: So yeah, they're there.
Speaker 2: I'm sure those guys are going to try to get
Speaker 2: what they need, just like you know, we want Calvin
Speaker 2: to get a thousand yards. You know, those are all
Speaker 2: things that we want guys to be able to achieve
Speaker 2: and give them the opportunity.
Speaker 4: To do it.
Speaker 3: You beat the Texans in the first game in Houston.
Speaker 3: What are some things from that contest that you want
Speaker 3: to replicate here on Sunday.
Speaker 2: I think the way our defense played and the way
Speaker 2: they covered it was really an impressive performance. I'd like
Speaker 2: to see that again. I thought we rushed the quarterback
Speaker 2: pretty good in that game as well. I think we
Speaker 2: put cgen or some duress. Offensively, we generated some explosive plays,
Speaker 2: like to do that again, but I thought we protected
Speaker 2: well against a pretty good rush group. So I'd like
Speaker 2: to see that continue. They got good players on the edges,
Speaker 2: they got a good interior rush, they can they got
Speaker 2: a good scheme. So it's a good challenge for us,
Speaker 2: a good way to finish the season. All right, let's
Speaker 2: wrap up with this Pro Bowl comes out on Thursday.
Speaker 2: Who are some of your Tennessee Titans that you think
Speaker 2: have had Pro Bowl worthy seasons in twenty twenty four. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think Jeff certainly has. He's still one of the
Speaker 2: most disruptive interior players in football. Plays the run in
Speaker 2: the pass equally well. He doesn't maybe have the sack
Speaker 2: production that some of these interior guys have, but as
Speaker 2: far as impact on our team, he's one of them.
Speaker 2: I think Mamani Hooker's played really well. I think he
Speaker 2: should deserve to be in the conversation with some of
Speaker 2: the safeties run the league. His ball production has been
Speaker 2: really good. I think also Luke Gifford as a special
Speaker 2: teams player is Pro Bowl worthy. I think he's a
Speaker 2: fantastic special teams player on top of the fact that
Speaker 2: he's filled in very well for us at linebacker, but
Speaker 2: as a special teams player, he's fantastic. And then the
Speaker 2: guy that I think is really underrated is Pete Skronsky.
Speaker 2: I think Pete's put together a really, really nice season.
Speaker 2: I put him up against any of the Pro Bowl
Speaker 2: guards right now. I think he's been fantastic, particularly the
Speaker 2: last half of the year. He's been lights out. I mean,
Speaker 2: he's really playing good football. So those are the guys
Speaker 2: I think are the ones. Tony Pollard probably belongs in
Speaker 2: the discussion. Although it's a crowded discussion for running back
Speaker 2: right now, but I think Tony Pollard should be at
Speaker 2: least discussed amongst some of the better backs in football.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think those are those are probably the
Speaker 2: guys that earned the recognition. Again, receivers are crowded. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of receivers that are really productive. But I
Speaker 2: think Calvin's played really well for us too. Whether or
Speaker 2: not that where it's a Pro Bowl not or not,
Speaker 2: I don't know. I just appreciate how he's played. But yeah, there,
Speaker 2: I think that we've got a couple of guys that
Speaker 2: should be at least in the conversation for some of
Speaker 2: those spots.
Speaker 1: Hard to believe it's the last one.
Speaker 2: It really is, It really is. It's hard to believe.
Speaker 2: It's almost some coming up on a year. I know,
Speaker 2: just the amount of things that have gone on and
Speaker 2: the work and the ups and downs and all the
Speaker 2: things that happened in your first year. It's, you know,
Speaker 2: first year sort of coming to a close, and now
Speaker 2: you reflect and get better and go attack the second year.
Speaker 1: You know, Ryan Callahan, we always appreciate you.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Coming up next, Mike Pereira, Fox's Rules Analyst. He is
Speaker 1: after the break.
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Speaker 1: Tighten Up Holm is at the forefront of all that
Speaker 1: we do. It's why we're so committed to caring for
Speaker 1: the places and spaces in which we work and live.
Speaker 1: Ashley the official furniture provider of the Tennessee Titans, now
Speaker 1: joined by Fox's Rules Analyst, who was the NFL's Vice
Speaker 1: President of Officiating from two thousand and four through twenty ten.
Speaker 1: You know him, Mike Pereira, Welcome.
Speaker 5: You know you keep saying those years two thousand and four. Man,
Speaker 5: I just feel myself getting so much older. God seems
Speaker 5: like forever. I'm great. I'm absolutely great. Happy Holidays, stall Well.
Speaker 1: I interviewed you the year you got the job. You
Speaker 1: and I did a long phone interview in two thousand
Speaker 1: and four for Titans Radio the year you got the job,
Speaker 1: and you were explaining what the job was really it
Speaker 1: was great.
Speaker 4: Wow, great coach Mack maybe with us.
Speaker 1: Coach Mack was on the staff at that point.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Oh, he was still on the staff, Mike.
Speaker 1: That was Coach Mack's first year on the staff for
Speaker 1: Jeff Fisher, as he replaced Gunther Cunningham. Wow. Who went
Speaker 1: back to Kansas City, the late great Gunther Cunningham.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: All right, So two topics to begin with, and these
Speaker 1: neither has anything to do with your job now, except
Speaker 1: that you missed last season after you had some serious
Speaker 1: back issues. You had some back surgery. So it would
Speaker 1: be poor of me, poor form to not ask you,
Speaker 1: Mike Pereira, how you do it.
Speaker 5: I got my life back thanks to a surgeon at
Speaker 5: uc SF in San Francisco, a doctor Sigurd Boervin, who
Speaker 5: somebody recommended to me. I was done I was cooked.
Speaker 5: I couldn't walk, I couldn't get out of bed. Basically
Speaker 5: when I could, I was on a walker and my
Speaker 5: life was over as I knew it. I mean, it
Speaker 5: really was. And when you feel that way, when you're
Speaker 5: active like we are, some of the thoughts that go
Speaker 5: through your head are not good ones, but they almost
Speaker 5: it's almost assuredly they're going to appear. And I went
Speaker 5: through the surgery I had. I was fused on seven
Speaker 5: different levels in my back. I have more metal than spine.
Speaker 4: In my back.
Speaker 5: And three months three months after I had the surgery,
Speaker 5: which was approximately on November one, twenty twenty three, at
Speaker 5: eight thirty in the morning, three months after, I was
Speaker 5: walking a mile and now I walk two to three miles.
Speaker 4: And I can do.
Speaker 5: Everything I used to do, except I can't tie my
Speaker 5: damn shoes.
Speaker 4: I can't.
Speaker 5: I can't bend over that far. And when it comes
Speaker 5: to putting out stop putting on socks. I have a
Speaker 5: little contraption that I have to put my sock over
Speaker 5: and then pull them up with straps.
Speaker 4: But I'm the luckiest man in the world.
Speaker 1: That's great.
Speaker 5: I'm a football person. I divide my life into quarters. First, second, third,
Speaker 5: and fourth, and the fourth quarter starts over an age
Speaker 5: span of one hundred starts at age seventy five. And
Speaker 5: I'm headed into the fourth quarter now, and I've been
Speaker 5: given a second chance, and I'm just the luckiest guy
Speaker 5: in the world.
Speaker 3: That's great, that's so good to hear. Well, my topic
Speaker 3: that we need to cover is a little more goofy.
Speaker 3: It's kind of silly, but in the season opener, you
Speaker 3: were trending all of cross social media. You were everywhere
Speaker 3: because you left Tom Brady hanging giving him a fist bump,
Speaker 3: and I'm gonna leave you hanging.
Speaker 1: Ry, Oh, come on you and Tom.
Speaker 3: Brady ended your alleged feude.
Speaker 1: Yeah, are you still fighting?
Speaker 4: You know the.
Speaker 5: Funny part of that thing. Of course you don't realize
Speaker 5: it when it's happened. But the thing is the setup
Speaker 5: that I have in the booth. I have to reach
Speaker 5: down and push a button to talk. So just when
Speaker 5: Kevin Burkhart was kind of introducing me, I didn't think
Speaker 5: I was gonna say anything. I think it was just
Speaker 5: just gonna be a shot of us. And then he
Speaker 5: made a reference to me and I had to say something.
Speaker 5: So just as Tom stuck his hand out. I looked
Speaker 5: down to my button to push my dang button so
Speaker 5: that I could talk, and of course it came. It
Speaker 5: looked like the ultimate rejection for Tom. And then of
Speaker 5: course they showed videos of him on the sideline at
Speaker 5: a different time to getting ignored by something. So then
Speaker 5: the following week Ian Blantino was in my spot, and
Speaker 5: then they made a concerted effort to fist bump and
Speaker 5: make it look perfect, which made me look even worse.
Speaker 5: But yes, Tom and I have we have made up,
Speaker 5: and we have spent a lot of time together since then,
Speaker 5: and yet we have not found an occasion to fist bump,
Speaker 5: And maybe we will this this coming week seventeen or
Speaker 5: into week eighteen. But it's actually been a pleasure to
Speaker 5: be standing next to him during the course of games.
Speaker 1: A potential Christmas miracle. We'll see the fish pump, all right.
Speaker 1: So let's talk officiating. My prayer, is there a real
Speaker 1: movement afoot to finally change the pass interference penalty on
Speaker 1: the defense from a spot foul to a fifteen yard penalty.
Speaker 5: I so wish, Mike that I could say that there is,
Speaker 5: But there isn't. I mean, the Competition Committee is definitely
Speaker 5: afraid of taking away the deep vertical path, and I
Speaker 5: am definitely afraid of the same thing that I saw
Speaker 5: when I worked in the league office and ran the
Speaker 5: officiating program, and those were forty fifty yards incorrect calls
Speaker 5: that were made. They gave fifty yards chunk yards to
Speaker 5: a team that didn't deserve it. And I would argue
Speaker 5: with the competition committee that much like we do in
Speaker 5: the spring leagues now, where we use the college rule.
Speaker 5: You know, they always say to me, well, if a
Speaker 5: defender gets beat, then he's just going to reach out
Speaker 5: and tackle a guy. And I say, do you watch
Speaker 5: college football. If they're close enough to commit pass interference,
Speaker 5: they're trying to make the play. That's not true. They
Speaker 5: don't just tackle people. And I even conceded to changing.
Speaker 4: The rule to say, if it is.
Speaker 5: An intentional act of just tackling a guy and not
Speaker 5: making any type of play, then we could make that
Speaker 5: one a spot foul. But no, I don't see it
Speaker 5: on the horizon. I don't see it on my time.
Speaker 5: Anytime they've tried I did do anything with pass interference,
Speaker 5: including making it reviewable in replay, it's failed. And so
Speaker 5: I just don't see that they have that appetite, even
Speaker 5: though I sure wish.
Speaker 3: They would my PRAYERRA twenty twenty four has been the
Speaker 3: year of the dynamic kickoff. Do you think it's still
Speaker 3: too early to call that change to the kickoff a success?
Speaker 3: That is a permanent fixture in NFL football.
Speaker 5: I'm not too early to call it a success.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 5: I think that it will change, I think, but the
Speaker 5: changes will be tweaked. Look, what were the two reasons
Speaker 5: that they were looking for? The two results they were
Speaker 5: looking for less concussions and more returns. There are less concussions,
Speaker 5: although we haven't seen that final data. From what we've
Speaker 5: seen so far, that's certainly a positive. What about the
Speaker 5: number of returns, well, they've gone from nineteen percent to
Speaker 5: thirty two percent. What about the average drive start? It's
Speaker 5: actually gone to twenty nine point five? Is the is
Speaker 5: the average yards where you know the offense takes over
Speaker 5: the ball.
Speaker 4: So I believe, although.
Speaker 5: This is a temporary rule and has to be voted positively,
Speaker 5: it has to be a positive vote by twenty four
Speaker 5: of the thirty two owners, I believe it will pass again,
Speaker 5: and maybe if it kind of copies how instant replay went.
Speaker 5: They might say two years next time and make it
Speaker 5: a temporary.
Speaker 4: Two year rule. But what tweaks will they look at.
Speaker 5: I don't think they're quite satisfied with thirty two percent returns.
Speaker 5: I think they want to see more along the forty
Speaker 5: four to forty five percent returns. So what's the easiest
Speaker 5: way to do that. Well, maybe back up the kickoff
Speaker 5: so you kick off from five yards further downfield. But
Speaker 5: I think the main one would be take touchbacks. If
Speaker 5: a ball's kicked into the end zone and doesn't bounce
Speaker 5: into the end zone. If it's kicked into the end
Speaker 5: zone right now, it goes to the thirty I think
Speaker 5: they're more wise to move it to the thirty five
Speaker 5: because now you're a total of six yards over the
Speaker 5: average drive start, and there's more incentive to keep a
Speaker 5: team from kicking it into the end zone. Look, the
Speaker 5: touchback last year was the twenty five yard line, this
Speaker 5: year it's the thirty. Team said I'll give up the
Speaker 5: extra five. That's not that big of a deal. Extra
Speaker 5: ten that's a little bit more big of a deal.
Speaker 5: So I kind of predict that we will see the
Speaker 5: rule passing in maybe for another one of two years
Speaker 5: with the touchback going to the thirty five yard line,
Speaker 5: and if they do that, I do think will be
Speaker 5: I think this rule will be around for quite a while.
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Speaker 1: In twenty twenty four, we have noticed the impact of
Speaker 1: replay assist very consistently. In your opinion, is that a
Speaker 1: positive or a negative for NFL officials?
Speaker 5: Well, there might's the main question who's at the benefit
Speaker 5: for Is the benefit for the game or is the
Speaker 5: be benefit for the officials. I think the benefit is
Speaker 5: there for the game those of us that watch the game,
Speaker 5: we have less stoppages that take two or two and
Speaker 5: a half minutes. That's the benefit. Is it good for
Speaker 5: the officials, that's a different story. You know, I'm not
Speaker 5: popular within the ranks sometimes when I say that I
Speaker 5: don't think officiating is as good as it used to be.
Speaker 5: Officials don't like to hear that. But the fact is,
Speaker 5: technology controls the game at this point. You know, back
Speaker 5: when I officiated, which was a long time ago, so
Speaker 5: we're talking about ninety six and ninety seven, you know,
Speaker 5: we were responsible to run the game. I mean, if
Speaker 5: you threw a pass interference flag, you had to determine.
Speaker 4: Even though you weren't absolutely certain.
Speaker 5: And you were ways away, you have to you had
Speaker 5: to determine where the spot of the fowl was. If
Speaker 5: there was a runner that went out of bounds, you
Speaker 5: had determined whether to determine whether or not he was
Speaker 5: at the thirty seven or the thirty eight yard line.
Speaker 5: And grant you, you weren't always accurate. But now you know,
Speaker 5: the big guy comes in. You know, you call pass
Speaker 5: interference and the next thing you know, in your ear
Speaker 5: you hear.
Speaker 4: Put the ball at the two four yard.
Speaker 5: Okay, whatever you want me to do, I'll put it there.
Speaker 5: Guy runs out of bounds, you put him at the
Speaker 5: thirty seven. Put the ball at the thirty eight and
Speaker 5: a half. They've taken officiating out of the hands of
Speaker 5: the officials, which in my opinion, has done two things.
Speaker 5: Made him a little tentative waiting for input and also
Speaker 5: protected some officials who are maybe struggling because they're changing
Speaker 5: calls that are on the field.
Speaker 4: But if we look, if we look at.
Speaker 5: The grand plane and what we want, I mean, are
Speaker 5: more calls being accurately made in the field, Yes, And
Speaker 5: is the game flow a little better with expedited review
Speaker 5: or assist yes. So we're not going to see it
Speaker 5: going backwards. As a matter of fact, we'll see it
Speaker 5: going forward. You will see more activity in the way
Speaker 5: of correcting. For example, the the rule of the year
Speaker 5: face mask violations that they'll certainly, in my mind, will
Speaker 5: now have face mask calls reviewed. So if they're not
Speaker 5: face mask then they can take them off. If they're
Speaker 5: not hits on defensives receivers, they can take them off.
Speaker 5: People say, well, that's not the problem. The problem is
Speaker 5: if they're not called, that's the bigger problem. But if
Speaker 5: you actually tell the officials, if you say to the
Speaker 5: officials win in doubt, go ahead and throw it because
Speaker 5: replay can pick it up, then you're going to get
Speaker 5: these ones that aren't called that maybe they didn't have
Speaker 5: a great look at Maybe then they will call them,
Speaker 5: and then, like I said, if if they're not, then
Speaker 5: they can be taken off. Look, I'm a proponent of
Speaker 5: the sky judge. I'm a proponent of letting an official
Speaker 5: be in a booth with a second look at every
Speaker 5: play and let him correct it as.
Speaker 4: Knee to be.
Speaker 5: We're getting close to there. We just don't call it
Speaker 5: a sky judge. But you know, with the technology, with
Speaker 5: the importance of the games, with the gambling, it's more
Speaker 5: important that we get as much as we can get right,
Speaker 5: even though it is absolutely impossible to get everything right.
Speaker 3: Okay, so you brought up the sky judge, and I
Speaker 3: would love it if you could clarify this for me.
Speaker 3: What is the difference between what the league is doing
Speaker 3: now with replay assist and what a sky judge would do.
Speaker 3: Is it just that it's a person on site in
Speaker 3: the building. Is that the difference?
Speaker 4: Well, let's see.
Speaker 5: You've gotten now replay can use expedited review with the
Speaker 5: or assist with the replay person that's in the studio.
Speaker 5: Then New York is the next level, and they make
Speaker 5: all the big decisions on the reversals, the challenges, the
Speaker 5: confirmations of changes of possessions or score. But you know, Amy,
Speaker 5: it's getting close, It really is getting close. But they'll
Speaker 5: never call it the sky Judge because you know, the
Speaker 5: Spring Leagues called it a sky judge. So they don't
Speaker 5: want to, like, they want their own term, you know,
Speaker 5: if it, if it comes to if they're gonna they're gonna.
Speaker 4: Call it the Master Referee or.
Speaker 5: Something like that, and they'll have them, they'll have them
Speaker 5: wearing you know, striped shirts inside the booth, in the
Speaker 5: in the press box. But it is, it is inching closer.
Speaker 5: And you know, I'm I'm a purist. I mean, I
Speaker 5: love the game. I love every aspect of the game
Speaker 5: pretty much. And I always loved it because it was
Speaker 5: a human game. It was a violent game. It was
Speaker 5: a game where you know, humans played it. I mean
Speaker 5: humans coached it. Humans made decisions, humans fumbled, humans through
Speaker 5: incomplete passes. Coaches call bad plays and officials made incorrect calls,
Speaker 5: and so the problem is the only the expectation of
Speaker 5: perfection is for the officials who have the hardest job
Speaker 5: of maybe all of them, because it's a mental job,
Speaker 5: not a physical job. And we always forget about the
Speaker 5: fact that when we all watch it, when the three
Speaker 5: of us watch it, you know what, we're watching it
Speaker 5: mostly in slow motion. When they replay things and from
Speaker 5: above looking down, I mean, they're on the same level.
Speaker 5: They're looking through twenty two bodies and they just don't
Speaker 5: get the look that we do. So replays good for
Speaker 5: the game, but kind of deemphasizes the importance to me
Speaker 5: of the officials job.
Speaker 1: All right, Mike Prayri, you got to help me with something.
Speaker 4: I'm here to help you.
Speaker 1: I've God bless you because here's I Here's what I
Speaker 1: got is the whole offensive tackle isn't lined up on
Speaker 1: the line of scrimage. He's lined up in the backfield.
Speaker 1: Thing really that big a deal, to the point that
Speaker 1: it's been started that people have started calling it so
Speaker 1: much here late in the season.
Speaker 5: Well, first of all, first of all, this is a
Speaker 5: hard one to help. First of all, officials are doing
Speaker 5: what they're told to do. They get the flat, but
Speaker 5: they're told to do it by their leadership, by the
Speaker 5: competition committee. Whatever does it create that much of an
Speaker 5: advantage for the player that's lined up a little deep?
Speaker 5: Maybe a little bit, But ultimately, what are they also
Speaker 5: trying to do? What are they trying to do in
Speaker 5: this game? What's the what's w's the one person on
Speaker 5: the field that they're mostly trying to protect, the quarterback.
Speaker 5: So a little bit of you know, worrying about the
Speaker 5: tackles being lined up a little bit off the line
Speaker 5: of scrimmage, Well, they need to do that to protect
Speaker 5: that quarterback that they're trying to protect. So to me,
Speaker 5: it's making it's making a bigger deal out of it
Speaker 5: than they need to make. But I think, you know,
Speaker 5: help me with this one. Okay, if you can understand
Speaker 5: this statement from me, we no longer officiate the game
Speaker 5: as artists. We officiated as scientists. And here's what I
Speaker 5: mean by that. I think we have a tendency to
Speaker 5: over officiate the game. Back in my day and back
Speaker 5: in the days before me, it was about advantage disadvantage, right,
Speaker 5: and if something didn't create an advantage and it wasn't
Speaker 5: safety related, you don't call it. But where they are now,
Speaker 5: where they are with officials, if you don't call things
Speaker 5: that they think need to be called, you get a downgrade.
Speaker 5: And if you get a downgrade, that affects your chances
Speaker 5: of making the playoffs. If you get three or four downgrades,
Speaker 5: it affects your chances from, you know, working a championship game.
Speaker 5: I mean, if you get two, you probably eliminate your
Speaker 5: chances from working the Super Bowl. So you're calling things
Speaker 5: just because they feel like they should be called, even
Speaker 5: though they don't understand that what they're downgrading people for
Speaker 5: doesn't have an effect. For example, for example, at the
Speaker 5: end of a game a week ago or two weeks ago,
Speaker 5: they downgraded official an official for not calling an illegal
Speaker 5: formation with twenty one seconds to go in the fourth
Speaker 5: quarter of a three score game.
Speaker 4: You want that called?
Speaker 5: No, you want that interruption, you know, when it absolutely
Speaker 5: has no impact of the game. The artistry in the
Speaker 5: game of officiating has pretty much left the scene, and
Speaker 5: that's what concerns me a little bit. It's not for
Speaker 5: the good of the game. It's for the competition. It's
Speaker 5: for the competition of the officials. Moving on and even
Speaker 5: staying employed, and I just think they need to be
Speaker 5: less a part of the game than more part of
Speaker 5: the game. And all my guys hate me for saying that,
Speaker 5: but that's okay.
Speaker 3: Well, similarly, the hip drop tackle was a point of
Speaker 3: emphasis going into this season, but it doesn't seem as
Speaker 3: though it's being called very often. Does that mean that
Speaker 3: the plan worked and players knew it was being emphasized
Speaker 3: and so they stopped doing it, or is it just
Speaker 3: too hard to judge when that's happening and officials aren't
Speaker 3: inserting themselves like you've said.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, Amy, they did say they did to all
Speaker 5: the clubs look for it.
Speaker 4: Don't look forward to be called.
Speaker 5: And that's the same thing that happened with the illegal
Speaker 5: use of the helmet contact. Very difficult to call, and
Speaker 5: so they said the players, and they said that the coaches,
Speaker 5: and they said the ownership. Look, this is really hard
Speaker 5: to call, and so we're not expecting the officials to
Speaker 5: call it. But you can expect the letter from the lead,
Speaker 5: which is going to take some money from you. So
Speaker 5: that's the way. And I felt less strongly about that.
Speaker 5: I felt like you could call illegal use of helmet
Speaker 5: the hip drop. I was more concerned about. And that's
Speaker 5: why I said, if you're going to put these types
Speaker 5: of rules in that you say are so difficult to call,
Speaker 5: then make them reviewable. I mean, why would we not
Speaker 5: do that because you're basically given a free chunk to
Speaker 5: a team that should have gotten it for the foul
Speaker 5: and so have they followed the letter of the law.
Speaker 5: Have the officials called it? Well, we guess what. We
Speaker 5: got to week sixteen and we got our first one.
Speaker 5: We got our first one that was called on the field.
Speaker 1: It was wrong.
Speaker 4: It wasn't a hip drop tackle.
Speaker 5: So we're er for one on the field when we're
Speaker 5: trying to call the hip drop.
Speaker 4: Why was it wrong.
Speaker 5: Because he didn't elevate, He didn't elevate, his body hit
Speaker 5: the ground, and then the legs didn't get all the
Speaker 5: way over on the onto the ankles of the runner.
Speaker 4: Good God, it's a complicated one.
Speaker 5: That might be the most complicated call that the officials
Speaker 5: would have to have to make. So I think, you know, certainly,
Speaker 5: I don't expect to see one in week seventeen or eighteen,
Speaker 5: and I don't expect to see one in the playoffs.
Speaker 5: But it's I'm always a bit amused when you put
Speaker 5: in rules that you know can't really be officiated, but
Speaker 5: that is player safety, and there have been a number
Speaker 5: of injuries.
Speaker 4: So I understand that, Mike.
Speaker 1: What is the most important issue or issues that you
Speaker 1: think the NFL officiating office is going to have to
Speaker 1: deal with in this upcoming offseason.
Speaker 4: I think it's going to revolve around replay.
Speaker 5: I mean I really, I really feel that, and how
Speaker 5: much more they're going to get involved with picking up
Speaker 5: flags on the field. Look, they did a couple of
Speaker 5: things last year already. They said if rupping the passer
Speaker 5: is called for a hit to the head or neck area,
Speaker 5: if there is no contact to the head or neck area,
Speaker 5: then replay can.
Speaker 4: Take it all.
Speaker 5: If they throw a flag for intentional grounding because of
Speaker 5: the fact that the quarterback got out of the pocket
Speaker 5: and didn't get the ball back to the line of scrimmage,
Speaker 5: they can go back and put him in the pocket
Speaker 5: if he was indeed in the pocket. So they've made
Speaker 5: these strides, which I guess are okay, But I have
Speaker 5: a couple of issues in regards to that. Number One,
Speaker 5: they're using a different standard to me when it comes
Speaker 5: to like and this is going to be it hits
Speaker 5: on defenseless players. If they said we can pick it
Speaker 5: up if there's no head contact to the head or
Speaker 5: neck area, they won't pick it up. If there is
Speaker 5: any contact, even ever so slight to the head or
Speaker 5: neck area, they.
Speaker 4: Won't pick it up.
Speaker 5: They won't make that additional judgment as to whether it's
Speaker 5: forcible or not. And so that to me is, look,
Speaker 5: if you're going to make get reviewable. If there's not
Speaker 5: forcible contact, then take it off. If it's just a
Speaker 5: glancing blow with a hand, it's not consistent with what
Speaker 5: you want called on the field. If you look at
Speaker 5: it and say you're going to tell the referee, okay,
Speaker 5: look at I don't want that call that's incorrect even
Speaker 5: though there is slight contact, and make it incorrect with replay,
Speaker 5: and then the other thing that's going to happen. I
Speaker 5: do think that in some ways it's going to open
Speaker 5: up Pandora's box, as I stated earlier, where if you
Speaker 5: let the officials know that their call is subject to
Speaker 5: being picked up, they'll have more of a tendency to
Speaker 5: call it. So let's just take face mask. So if
Speaker 5: they call a face mask, and then the league says
Speaker 5: we'll pick it up. If there's absolutely no contact. Then
Speaker 5: if there is the slightest of grab that you wouldn't
Speaker 5: have wanted call before, then you know, then they wouldn't
Speaker 5: take it off.
Speaker 4: So I would hope.
Speaker 5: They would get to the standard of it is or
Speaker 5: isn't a foul period and make that decision based on that.
Speaker 5: And I also think that if there are some that
Speaker 5: are so obviously misspace mask Sam Darnold, Joe Burrow, if
Speaker 5: it's if it's so clear and so obvious and it's
Speaker 5: player safety related, and the officials looking through twenty two
Speaker 5: people didn't get a look, and let them put it on.
Speaker 5: I mean, let it put them on. I mean we're
Speaker 5: headed that direction anyways. And so lastly to me, and
Speaker 5: this was my gift when I left in twenty ten,
Speaker 5: I said, make all seventeen referees full time, make them
Speaker 5: full time, Make them report to their officiating place. Maybe
Speaker 5: put it somewhere in the middle of the country, like Dallas,
Speaker 5: and they go there every week during the season.
Speaker 4: They work together, They develop.
Speaker 5: The same messages, they teach the same messages to their crew.
Speaker 5: They role play, they learn what to say, what the
Speaker 5: signals are. They do everything together, they participate with the
Speaker 5: Head of Officiating, they participate with the competition Committee. Two
Speaker 5: of them each year are assigned to the Titans, and
Speaker 5: they come to the Titans mini camps everything, they're with them. Now,
Speaker 5: you don't let them work a Titans game. I just
Speaker 5: think that you have one hundred and twenty smid officials
Speaker 5: being taught by a very limited number of people. And
Speaker 5: to me, the referees are the most important because they
Speaker 5: teach their own crews, and so I would love to
Speaker 5: see him bite the bullet, spend the money and get
Speaker 5: more consistent messages to all one hundred and twenty officials.
Speaker 5: And you know the league, and I don't like to
Speaker 5: criticize them because often they don't deserve to be criticized
Speaker 5: and are. But the league has had as a tendency
Speaker 5: to try to make things better by putting band aids on,
Speaker 5: and band aids usually and when a rule change its
Speaker 5: reaction to something that happened. I think they just need
Speaker 5: to take a big step now because the game's getting
Speaker 5: tougher to officiate. And I'm not for making one hundred
Speaker 5: and twenty one guys or one hundred and twenty one
Speaker 5: guys and girls full time, but I am for the
Speaker 5: seventeen referees because I do think that will have a
Speaker 5: positive effect.
Speaker 3: Now you mentioned all of these officials that are involved,
Speaker 3: we also know that there's a shortage of officials in
Speaker 3: high school and college who are coming up the ranks.
Speaker 3: What are you and others doing to try and encourage
Speaker 3: more men and women to get involved in the career
Speaker 3: of officiating.
Speaker 4: Well, we're trying to get parents to shut up.
Speaker 5: I mean, just to be absolutely candid, because all new
Speaker 5: officials start at the youth level, and the sportsmanship is
Speaker 5: the youth level is as bad or worse than any
Speaker 5: other play. You know, they're not competent, they're just starting
Speaker 5: out and you got parents yelling at them, and so.
Speaker 4: What do they do? Quit? It's not worth it.
Speaker 5: It's not worth it for the money that they make
Speaker 5: on the youth level or the high school level, or
Speaker 5: in fact even the college level.
Speaker 4: But that's a different story.
Speaker 5: But the shortage, as you said, Amy, it's it's unbelievable.
Speaker 5: I mean, and it's just pretty much every sport and
Speaker 5: it's every state, and the only people who are going
Speaker 5: to make it better are the officials themselves. I mean,
Speaker 5: they have to actually, I mean they care about each other.
Speaker 5: They have to go about trying to find a way
Speaker 5: to get more people involved. And every time I speak
Speaker 5: to groups, I tell them that that nobody, no athletic director,
Speaker 5: no coach, no mayor of a city's going to do
Speaker 5: anything for you. You have to care about officiating. You
Speaker 5: have to try to leave it better than it was
Speaker 5: when you first got into it. And there are ways,
Speaker 5: you know. I started a foundation in twenty sixteen called
Speaker 5: Battlefields to ball Fields, and we give scholarships to veterans
Speaker 5: to become sports officials in their communities. We've got officials
Speaker 5: in our program from Tennessee. We pay for their uniforms,
Speaker 5: we pay all their expenses, and we now have issued
Speaker 5: over fifteen hundred scholarships in thirty eight different states. It's
Speaker 5: not much, I mean, that's only fifteen hundred, But if
Speaker 5: we could all of us that are in this avocation
Speaker 5: for most people it's an avocation, if we could step
Speaker 5: up and figure ways to do things like that to
Speaker 5: overall help our program and ours has been kind of successful.
Speaker 5: And the success is retention, quite frankly, if you get
Speaker 5: them staying involved. And part of my thing was because
Speaker 5: Number one I don't feel that we do enough for
Speaker 5: our veterans.
Speaker 4: Number two, I don't.
Speaker 5: Think they're going to be bothered that much by those
Speaker 5: parents that are yelling at I mean, they went they
Speaker 5: went through Uh, they were a lot more.
Speaker 4: But it is dire situations.
Speaker 5: Yet, I will tell you, if you have the guts
Speaker 5: to take on something that's so difficult, that's hard to
Speaker 5: put your butts on the line, if you make it
Speaker 5: for three years, you develop lifelong friendships, a group of
Speaker 5: people that share the same frustrations that you have. And
Speaker 5: I'm telling you all of my good friends, including the
Speaker 5: best man at my wedding there they're officials, and so
Speaker 5: I hope things get better because it's the kids that
Speaker 5: are suffering.
Speaker 1: Mike Pereira, thank you so much for the time. We've
Speaker 1: kept you too long, but so much fun to catch
Speaker 1: up with you.
Speaker 4: Was prepared to go another half hour.
Speaker 1: A mean, I'll just head out New Year's Eve, that'd
Speaker 1: be great. Thank you so much for your time, and
Speaker 1: we are so glad that you are doing well. When
Speaker 1: we read everything last year, we were worried. We talked
Speaker 1: to Coach Mack about it and he kept us posted
Speaker 1: and it's just it's not the same without you. I mean,
Speaker 1: you are the original in this field. And when Mike
Speaker 1: Pereira says it, it is so. It is so. We
Speaker 1: all listen. Now, we know you have problems with Tom
Speaker 1: Brady and we hope that clears up, but.
Speaker 5: Well listen, it's a pleasure to talk to you you again, Mike. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, I'm a big fan of coach Mac And
Speaker 5: as I said, I'm just I'm lucky to be sitting
Speaker 5: in this chair talking to you, and I will never
Speaker 5: forget that luck and good fortune that I got and
Speaker 5: the great surgeon, and I'll be in Minnesota in week seventeen,
Speaker 5: and I'm just supercharged and happy to be able to
Speaker 5: do that.
Speaker 1: Mike Praira, thank you.
Speaker 4: You got it.