Like many, Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians would enjoy seeing his players play fewer preseason games, but not if it's at the expense of officials. As he figures, they need more in-game action to be ready for the regular season.
Arians worries that if the NFL cuts down on preseason games, the officials will be worse off as they will have half the time to adjust to new rule changes. Instead, he proposes that officials alone need perhaps six games to get ready for meaningful football calls.
“We keep talking about these players going to two preseason games. I don’t know how we’re going to officiate with only two preseason games. Those guys need more work than we do. They need at least four, maybe six,” Arians recently said, per Pro Football Talk.
Arians is never one to avoid speaking what is on his mind. And he's not necessarily wrong with proposing officials take six games to be ready, either. Rule changes can be minor, but they can also be game-altering. Why not give those making vital calls more time to practice what they see on the field?
To be clear, Arians doesn't oppose rule changes. In fact, he loves the newest, most significant one: The ability to challenge a call or no-call on pass interference, offensively or defensively. He's a football purist, and he doesn't mind calling out an official on their mistakes.
“I love the ability to correct their mistake,” Bruce Arians said in mid-August per Jordan Butler of Bucs Life News.
We'll see how often Arians uses his newfound ability to do throughout the regular season.
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