Roger Goodell Said "I Am Amazed At How Good Our Officials Are" When Asked About The State Of Officiating In The NFL, Which Makes Him The Funniest Commissioner In Sports History

Pro Football Talk - In his Monday press conference, commissioner Roger Goodell suggested that either replay assistants in the stadium or potentially officials monitoring games at league headquarters in New York could call penalties to correct an “obvious error.”

Goodell was asked about the general state of officiating and began his answer by praising the league’s officials.

“I’m so amazed at how good our officials are,” Goodell said. “We spend time all week looking at various angles and still debating it a week later. These guys have to make a split-second decision, and the men and women on our field are incredible. I think they’ve proven over and over again they’re really wonderful at what they do.

“On the other hand,” Goodell continued, “it’s a difficult sport to officiate. It’s fast. It’s quick. And we have to be able to use technology, in my view, to try to prevent the obvious errors. Now, they’re not all obvious. I think, depending on which team you’re for, they’re obvious in your eyes potentially. But at the end of the day, we see that if there’s an obvious error, we need to be able to fix it. And I think technology can help that.”

I hate that I have to say it, but it’s true. When I read this quote from Roger Goodell praising the league's officials, I started laughing out loud. Not the happy kind, but the kind of laugh you do when you're so mad you don't know what else to do. 

The maniacal kind.

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This guy actually said he’s “amazed” by how good NFL officiating is. 

Amazed.

And he did it with a straight face. 

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(Sidebar- I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, and I’ll probably yell it from the afterlife- make the refs full-time. Train them year-round. And pay them like professionals. Hold them accountable like professionals. They're out there making calls that decide careers, legacies, and whether half of New England sleeps at night, we don't need this fucking “he’s a dentist during the week” energy trying to figure out what’s pass interference on third and long. Clean it up.)

Every fanbase across the country has screamed this at their TVs during playoff games. Every. Single. Year. 

This year was no exception.

Then the league just shrugs and says “oops, human error” like that fixes anything, and we all just choke it down like cold medicine.

Because we’re hooked like crack fiends. And Roger and his puppet master owners know it. They got us by the short hairs and they've always known it.

So Ginger Satan standing up there, proudly saying “I’m amazed by how great our officials are,” I check out immediately. Because he’s not talking to us. He was talking to shareholders.

And the reason I howled with laughter  seeing this isn’t just because it’s ridiculous, it’s because I honestly can’t tell if he believes it. 

Is he seriously sitting there thinking, “Nailed it, everyone loves the refs”? 

Or is he trolling us at such a high level that he deserves a Hall of Fame jacket for it? Because delivering that line with a straight face is elite-level performance art.

Even better, he praises the officials… then immediately pivots to how the league needs a failsafe in New York to correct their “occasional mistakes.” 

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So they’re incredible, but also so error-prone we need an emergency adult in the booth to fix things in real-time. 

Copy. 

That totally checks out. And of course, the media nods along like bobbleheads because challenging the league is not wise. Never bite the hand that feeds you. 

The most annoying fucking part of this all, is that Goodell’s really good at this. 

He knows the tone and exactly what he's doing. 

He knows how to say “the refs are heroes” and still quietly push for more centralized control. He makes it sound like progress when it’s just another layer of the league deciding how games play out. It’s a God damned magic trick- and even when I see his hands, he still fucking pulls it off.

Patriots fans know this routine allllll too well. We've seen the league turn on the drama, pretend to care about “integrity,” and then change the rules in the name of “fairness” while somehow always putting the blame on us. So I'm not buying this shit, even though I still think it's hilarious. 

But do I respect the level of trolling? Unfortunately, yes. 

Because it takes a real pro to say something that makes every fan in the country yell into a throw pillow, and still walk away looking like he just gave a keynote at MIT.

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p.s. - hey Roger, can we run this one back please given the newly released information?