Some people weren't fans of the XFL, but regardless of people's opinions of the start-up league, it had ideas that could find their way into the NFL. After being against the idea, the NFL's competition committee is coming around to being in favor of a “sky judge” due to the XFL.
Dean Blandino, who used to be the head of officiating in the NFL, now holds the same position in the XFL. During a phone interview on Wednesday with the Toronto Sun's John Kyrk, Blandino spoke about the prospects of the NFL using a sky judge in the future.
“The competition committee had an abbreviated conference call — obviously, with what’s going on they can’t meet in person as they normally would — but they had a call last week some time,” Blandino said, “and they went through all the rules proposals. And there is support for this.”
The XFL chose to implement a sky judge in their games to give an extra set of eyes to assure that there aren't mistakes being made by the officials on the field. For the most part, it was a major success for the XFL, being able to get the correct calls made a majority of the time.
For years, teams in the NFL have been skeptical of having someone watching from the booth to help make decisions on certain plays. However, with the sky judge showing promise in the XFL, the NFL could make the change in the coming season.
The NFL's annual owner meetings were postponed until May due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. When the owners meet to vote on rule proposals, it sounds like there's a decent chance that the idea of a sky judge will be approved.
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