by: Chris Sullivan
Jay Glazer just announced on Fox NFL Sunday that the NFL's VP of Officiating, Mike Pereira, will be retiring. He will stay on for the 2009 season to help "oversee the transition" to his successor, whomever that may be.
To me, this seems like a welcome change. While I don't necessarily believe Pereira is the root cause of the decline in officiating in the NFL, I am optimistic that a change may help the league regain some of its integrity in that part of the game. It does however, seem to have declined sharply since Goodell took over (ironic, given his "tough" approach to players "cheating" with dirty hits and, uh, endzone celebrations...), so perhaps we won't actually see anything change and it could even get worse. I'm hoping not. This year felt like the poorest officiating year that I can remember, and not just in Seahawks games.
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