Throughout the NFL playoffs, officiating has been under heavy scrutiny following some controversial calls that benefited the Kansas City Chiefs in both the divisional round and the AFC Championship game. And one NFL legend isn’t exactly thrilled with the current state of officiating in the league.
During a recent appearance on SI Media with Jimmy Traina, iconic Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman didn’t hold back when discussing the NFL’s referees.
Aikman acknowledged that officiating is a “tough job,” but that didn’t stop him from emphasizing the need for improvement—especially given the rise of sports gambling, which the league actively promotes.
“I know the officials have a tough job. I mean, the scrutiny that they’re under. As we’ve gotten more advanced with instant replay, those guys, it seems, have become more and more scrutinized,” Aikman said, according to Fox News.
“And the game has not become less controversial. The game has become more controversial,” Aikman continued. “I just think that we’re at a point that this has tipped a little bit because the league is partners with a number of these gambling services.
“Here you are promoting gambling — people are gambling more than they ever have before and those types of calls – there’s a lot at stake regardless. But especially when you’re considering there’s a lot of money that’s changing hands with these calls as well.”
Aikman then took a firm stance, making it clear that the league owes its fans better officiating.
“I think that we owe it to the fans that we get it right, and I think we’re at a point in time where we can. We can get it more right. So, that was really my position in just trying to lean on the NFL and say, ‘Hey, we gotta fix this. We gotta address it in the offseason,’” Aikman said.
Needless to say, these are some pretty strong words from Aikman, and they led to a lot of reactions from fans in the comments.
“He’s right because I certainly won’t be watching the Super Bowl. I can’t support a sport that appears to be fixed,” one fan wrote in the comments on Fox News.
“Aikman is spot-on when he says the league “owes” it to its fans to address the officiating issues, especially with how much money people have at stake when they gamble and the NFL continuing to promote betting,” someone else added.
“When calls go in favor of one team repeatedly, it creates doubt. Doubt creates bias and bias turns off customers,” another person said.
“I agree that the NFL has a duty to get officiating right, but they do not owe gamblers anything. That should never be a factor,” someone else commented.
“Quite frankly the only reasons to watch the Super Bowl this year are to count how many bad call the officials are going to make that favor the Chiefs and to see how much your blood pressure will raise during the game!” another commenter wrote.
“Troy nailed it he’s exactly right!” someone else wrote.
Now, all eyes will be on the officiating crew for Super Bowl LIX.
