NFL refereeing: what the league (appears to) think

It's always been frustratingly difficult to figure out who the NFL thinks its best officiating crews are. The only time the league ever tips its hand is when it makes playoff assignments. They're merit-driven, with the best officials (so they think) assigned to the most important games. Certainly the best way to do things. However, most years, the NFL has used "all-star" crews in the postseason. So to some degree, the crews doing playoff games aren't the crews we were all subjected to in the regular season.

Anyone who knows me knows I come away from most games thinking the officiating sucked. For me, it's pretty much a matter of which crew sucks the least. But it certainly would be useful to know if the league thinks the crew sucks, too, both to validate or invalidate my opinion of the crew, and to know what quality of refereeing we should expect before, or should have expected after, a game.

So, based on this past season's playoff assignments, I've aspired to determine who the NFL thinks its best officiating crews are. I tried to weight the crew's ranking by the importance of the games each of its members worked. Here's what I came up with, listed Casey Kasem-style.

17. Peter Morelli. Darnit, I like the Morelli crew, because the Rams almost always win games they call. But Morelli was the only member of his crew to work the playoffs. Every other crew had at least two members qualify, making Morelli's the league's worst.

16. Gene Steratore. Just two of his crew members worked the playoffs. He also hasn't been a referee very long as far as I can tell, so I'm not sure he was actually eligible to work a playoff game himself.

15. Tony Corrente. A big departure from the coaches' ratings; they have him third. Though I feel this crew's improving, I doubt many Rams fans who have seen them butcher many calls in favor of Corrente's hometown Whiners are surprised to see them here. Just two crew members made the playoffs.

14. Larry Nemmers. Again, not a big surprise. He didn't work the playoffs; only two of his crew did. Not exactly leaving on a high note, Nemmers retired after the 2007 season.

13. Walt Coleman. This surprises me a lot, because the best-officiated Rams game last year was by this crew. But Coleman and two of his crew didn't get to ref anything more significant than the Redskins-Seahawks wild card game, while the rest stayed home.

12. Bill Leavy. Head linesman Gary Slaughter worked the Super Bowl, so theoretically, he's the best head linesman in the league. But none of the rest of the bunch even worked a playoff game.

11. Ron Winter. I am stunned this crew comes out ahead of Coleman's, because any time I see them, they're simply awful. Umpire Roy Ellison worked the NFC Championship, though, and the side judge also worked a game, enough to get them this far up.

10. Bill Carollo. He's worked conference championship games in the past, but dragged his crew's rating down by failing to qualify for a playoff assignment this year. Three of his judges did playoff games.

9. Scott Green. Green called the Jagwires-Steelers playoff game, while two of his crew went on to the Super Bowl: side judge Larry Rose and field judge Boris Cheek. Three of the crew missed the playoffs completely, though.

8. John Parry. If Parry hadn't been ineligible as a first-year referee, this whole crew would have gone to the playoffs. Umpire Tony Michalek worked the Super Bowl.

7. Gerry Austin. Yes, the crew the NFL's coaches and I think is the worst ranks this high in the league's eyes. Everyone but the back judge worked in the playoffs, and line judge Carl Johnson was in the Super Bowl. Notably, the back judge would have been the guy who BUTCHERED the non-fumble non-TD non-recovery the Big Dead got here last October. Seriously, if this crew is supposedly all good enough to work the league's highest-profile games, what the hell happened that week? They were all drunk? Because drunk referees would have called that game better. Austin has plenty of time to get drunk now if he wishes, mercifully retiring after the 2007 season.

6. Ed Hochuli. Hochuli's line judge didn't work the playoffs, or this highly-regarded crew would have finished higher. Back judge Scott Helverson worked the Super Bowl.

5. Jerome Boger. The top five crews graded out very closely the way I chose to do it. All five crews had every member work at least one playoff game. Neither Boger nor his umpire, who I'm considering the two most important officials, worked past the divisional round, so they narrowly lose on the third tiebreaker.

4. Walt Anderson. Despite this crew not knowing pass interference if it smacked them in the face, they all worked the playoffs, and two of them worked in the conference championship games.

3. Jeff Freaking Triplette. How can this be, when I'm convinced they've been the worst crew in the league for years, and the coaches ranked him first-to-last? Yet, that was Triplette and three of his crew members working the AFC Championship game, and the rest all worked in the earlier rounds. This crew is consistently the most awful crew I see, but the NFL thinks four of its members rank among the top three in their profession!

Not to put the kibosh on the last two crews, but the fact that the league appears to have such regard for the Triplette crew kind of shoots down this whole analysis as fas as I'm concerned. It's akin to naming Drew Bennett to the Pro Bowl.

2. Terry McAulay. He refereed the NFC Championship; his head linesman was also there to freeze his ass off. McAulay and Parry were the two referees who didn't work Rams games in 2007.

1. Mike Carey. At least this matches up with the coaches' poll. Carey won the tiebreakers by way of his role as the referee of the Super Bowl, though none of the rest of his crew made it past the divisional round.

So, congratulations to Mike Carey, whose crew I'm willing to declare is the best in the NFL. As for all you crews 4 through 17, you're behind JEFF FREAKING TRIPLETTE, step up your games!