I've seen a lot of suggestions for how they could make spotting the ball more precise. Some involve using miniature transponders in the ball and/or the pads of eligible receivers. Some have suggested that you just need better camera angles and a dedicated official with a feed to handle it. And of course, I think it's still a little silly that we still use the official chain-gang to measure matters of inches, since there's no damn way any person on Earth is going to run a big ol' pole across a field and put it down to within an inch of where it needs to be reliably.
I think the NFL could score a big hit with the fans if it would simply acknowledge that people are upset with blown calls, missed calls, and sketchy things by officials. Some suggestions:
- Make thrown flags challengeable, like in the CFL. How often do we see the officials get the number of the offending player wrong on a call, for instance? Force the referees to be accountable. If you are going to call holding on #60, and #60 was standing there with no one to block, then a coach should be able to throw a red flag on that. Oh, was there actually holding on the play but the refs got the number wrong? Well, yeah, they got it wrong! Get it right, instead. The NFL is a very, very rich organization. Team owners are very wealthy and their teams create even more wealth for them. Demand competent, accountable penalty assessments. If the referee threw a flag for pass interference and the replay shows that it was good coverage, THEN ADMIT YOU GOT IT WRONG AND PICK UP THE FLAG.
- Full time officials. Get young men (or women, I don't care) who know the rules and can keep up with the action. Have strict guidelines for things like eyesight, hearing, and general fitness. When football season is over, have them FULL TIME in practice and training and rulebook learning. Pay them a GOOD salary. You'll never fully eliminate the risk of bribery, but you can mitigate it.
- Better camera coverage in every stadium. There should be 8 end zone corner cameras in EVERY stadium. What is this going to amount to, like $2,500 per stadium?
Of course, all of this assumes that the League office and the majority of the owners actually really care about fairness and 'integrity of the game.' I'm sure this kind of effort into restoring fan confidence would interfere with the League's plans to shunt regular season games off to China or whatever dumb **** they're cooking up right now.