WITHOUT THE EYE IN THE SKY TO WATCH OVER THEM, OFFICIALS ARE BLOWING MANY A CALL

Is it my imagination or are the zebras getting worse? They made
a bad spot on fourth down that kept New England's winning drive
alive against the Jets. They ruled that the Raiders' Tim Brown
trapped a ball, a call that forced Oakland to punt, setting up
the Vikings' decisive drive in overtime. Replays showed that
Brown had made the catch. They said Miami's Karim Abdul-Jabbar
fumbled on New England's 28-yard line in the third quarter, even
though he was clearly down. The Dolphins were leading 17-14 at
the time, but the Patriots went on to win. They took away what
could have been the tying touchdown from the Jets' Keyshawn
Johnson in the fourth quarter of a loss to the Redskins. New
York coach Rich Kotite later said a league official acknowledged
that the call had been blown.

"Careers are at stake," Green Bay general manager Ron Wolf says.
"Players get cut for mistakes, coaches and G.M.'s get fired. But
what happens to officials? Nothing."

Does it make sense, with the game faster and tougher to follow
than ever, with linemen bigger and harder to see around, to
scrap, rather than to retain, a functional aid to accuracy? "The
officials were sharper and crisper in the old replay days," Wolf
says. "Put the eye back in the sky, and they'll be more
conscientious."

Veteran refs hated that eye, even though they paid lip service
to it publicly. Once, shortly before his retirement in 1990, Ben
Dreith sounded off to me about it at a party at the Pro Bowl.
"We've got an answer to that thing," he said. "The inadvertent
whistle that stops the action. That'll keep 'em from going to
the replay." Sure enough, the next season there was an epidemic
of inadvertent whistles. The league office put a stop to that
nonsense, then in 1992 the team owners voted instant replay out.

Even when you had replays, penalties weren't covered, and that's
where you get the real inconsistencies--in pass interference,
for instance, or with the illegal chuck. Different crews, even
people within the same seven-man crew, interpret the rules
differently. "You'll get bumped 15 or 18 yards downfield, and
there's no flag," Seattle wideout Robb Thomas says. "And it's
funny because every off-season you're told to come watch films
with the officials, and they say, 'We're going to call that.'
Then the season starts, and it changes again."

The penalties on a lot of calls are too severe for the
crime--especially the automatic first down on a five-yard chuck.
"You play your hearts out for three downs," Buffalo coach Marv
Levy says, "and you've got 'em third-and-28 and somebody's
called for an illegal chuck and it's first down all over again.
Come on! That's a bad rule."

Ejections are another thing the zebras don't get right. When a
fight breaks out, someone will get tossed and heavily fined, but
nine times out of 10 he's not the one who started it. Replays in
the league office will pick up the instigator--and he might get
fined later--but he gets to finish the game. "[Steelers
quarterback] Mike Tomczak body-slammed me," Houston free safety
Marcus Robertson says. "I got thrown out for retaliating. I had
to retaliate. How could I have gotten respect from my teammates?
I would have heard it for the rest of the year, how I got
body-slammed by a quarterback."

The game has changed, and the officiating has not kept up. The
field is spread so wide the zebras can't hope to catch
everything going on downfield. ("Put your older officials closer
to the line," Green Bay safety LeRoy Butler says. "Have the
younger ones as your back judges downfield.") The umpire,
stationed behind an inside linebacker, is in a tough spot, in
the middle of the meat-grinder, often getting run over as he's
peering into a mass of 300-pound bodies. "I have trouble seeing
around those big guys," Buffalo inside linebacker Chris Spielman
says. "How can he?"

My solutions? Here are a few: 1) Bring back replay. 2) Let the
replay official rule on penalty calls and sort out ejections
after a fight. 3) Scrap the five-yard chuck rule if it's too
unclear to be enforceable. 4) Strengthen supervision by the
league office to establish more consistency in pass interference
calls. 5) Add one, possibly two, officials downfield. 6) Open
the officials' room to the press after games. Popes and
presidents get interviewed, but only a pool reporter can talk to
the zebras. They have to be held more accountable.

--Paul Zimmerman

Dr. Z's weekly Internet NFL preview is at
www.sportsillustrated.com.

COLOR PHOTO: TRACY FRANKEL To earn his stripes, the umpire has to be in the thick of it. [Umpire and players in game]