NFL Referee Statistics Through Week 7 (updated 10/25/2008)

Let's go through some interesting categories for 2008 NFL referee statistics:

Total accepted penalties

Jeff Triplette (16.2) still well in front of Ron Winter (15.3) and Jerome Boger (15).

Walt Coleman (9.3) now at the bottom, then Gene Steratore (10) and Carl Cheffers (10.2).

Total penalty yards

Ron Winter (131) takes over with Jeff Triplette (127) falling to second, then Tony Corrente (109).
Walt Coleman (73) at the bottom then Scott Green (77) and Gene Steratore (78).

Yards per penalty

Tony Corrente (9.2) extends his lead over Alberto Riveron (8.8) and Terry McAulay (8.7)

Peter Morelli (7.1) just ahead of Jerome Boger (7.2) and Walt Anderson falls to third (7.3).

Points per game (no team adjustments)

These are raw numbers, not adjusted for the teams who played in the games.

Ron Winter (53.2) takes over the lead from Peter Morelli (51.2) then Bill Leavy (47.7).

Tony Corrente (36.5) takes over from Walt Anderson (37.8) then Gene Steratore (40.9).

Week 6 Cheatsheet

Referee, penalties, penalty yards, yards per penalty, and total points:
Winter, Ron 15.3 131 8.5 53.2
Morelli, Peter 12.4 88 7.1 51.2
Leavy, Bill 12.0 90 7.5 47.7
Hochuli, Ed 12.7 106 8.3 47.6
Cheffers, Carl 10.2 81 8.0 47.5
McAulay, Terry 11.3 98 8.7 46.7
Green, Scott 10.3 77 7.4 46.2
Carey, Mike 11.0 95 8.7 45.0
Coleman, Walt 9.3 73 7.9 44.7
Boger, Jerome 15.0 108 7.2 43.2
Riveron, Alberto 11.4 101 8.8 43.1
Carollo, William 12.7 100 7.9 42.5
Parry, John 12.3 93 7.6 42.5
Triplette, Jeff 16.2 127 7.9 42.3
Steratore, Gene 10.0 78 7.8 40.9
Anderson, Walt 13.2 97 7.3 37.8
Corrente, Tony 11.8 109 9.2 36.5

Continued Gag Rule: NFL Fines Plaxico Burress For Criticizing Referees

The NFL again imposes its gag rule against players, coaches, and players against criticizing or commenting on NFL referees.  Why do they insist on a gag rule and chilling people from commenting and discussing NFL referee performance?

News reports say that Plaxico Burress said that a call against him was one of the worst call he'd ever seen.  Also that he is playing his tail off and he wanted the referees to do the same thing.  And that a bad call is like a referee just stealing from him.

How is that something that should be fined $20,000?

His defense should be that he was not calling the referees corrupt or questioning their integrity -- he was just expressing his opinion that there was a bad call, which also helped explain Plaxico Burress's own performance and help the fans know what he had done during the game.

Sportswriters should respond to the gag rule by increasing commentary of NFL referee performance.  Everyone makes mistakes, why not point them out and discuss them, especially if the NFL uses a harsh gag rule on the players?  Are people afraid to upset the NFL?

NFL Referee Correlations between 2007 and 2008 seasons are limited so far

After only 6 weeks, let's take a look at correlations among the spread of NFL referees who worked the 2007 season and the 2008 season (through 6 weeks).

I'm looking for the correlation among the variations among the referees.  So if the number of accepted penalties varies by referees and certain ones call more every year than others, then there will be a correlation when we compare the variations among them.

So far, after just 6 weeks, there are not many strong correlations between the full 2007 season and the first 6 weeks of the 2008 season.

For total penalties, which usually has a strong correlation from one year to the next, it is only 0.021.  Total yards is 0.109.  Yards per penalty stands at -0.052.

Total points is -0.053.  Visiting team points is 0.280.  Home team points is -0.239.  The home team win rate is at 0.099.  Let's see how the correlations shape up as the season goes on.

NFL Referee Statistics through week 6 (after 10/13/2008)

Let's go through some interesting categories for 2008 NFL referee statistics:

Total accepted penalties

Jeff Triplette (17.4) way in front of Ron Winter (14.2) and Peter Morelli (14).

Gene Steratore (99) at the bottom, trailed by Walt Coleman (9.3) and Carl Cheffers (9.3).

Total penalty yards

Jeff Triplette (138) of course on top followed by Ron Winter (121) and Ed Hochuli (112).

Gene Steratore (72) virtually tied with Walt Anderson and Walt Coleman (73).

Yards per penalty

Tony Corrente (9.2) edged ahead of Terry McAulay (8.9) and Mike Carey (8.7).

Walt Anderson (6.6) at the bottom, below Peter Morelli (6.8) and Jerome Boger (7.2).

Points per game (no team adjustments)

These are raw numbers, not adjusted for the teams who played in the games.

Peter Morelli (54.8) on top of Ron Winter (54.2) and Terry McAulay (51).

Walt Anderson (36.2) on the bottom with Tony Corrente (36.5) breathing down his neck, followed by Carl Cheffers (39.2).

Week 6 Cheatsheet

Referee, penalties, penalty yards, yards per penalty, and total points:

Anderson, Walt 11.0 73.0 6.6 36.2
Boger, Jerome 13.8 100.0 7.2 46.0
Carey, Mike 11.0 95.3 8.7 45.0
Carollo, William 13.4 105.8 7.9 41.2
Cheffers, Carl 9.6 78.0 8.1 39.2
Coleman, Walt 9.3 73.3 7.9 44.7
Corrente, Tony 11.8 108.7 9.2 36.5
Green, Scott 11.4 85.4 7.5 49.4
Hochuli, Ed 13.7 111.5 8.2 47.5
Leavy, Bill 11.8 89.0 7.5 49.2
McAulay, Terry 11.8 105.4 8.9 51.0
Morelli, Peter 14.0 95.0 6.8 54.8
Parry, John 12.2 94.4 7.7 41.4
Riveron, Alberto 11.2 92.2 8.3 42.3
Steratore, Gene 9.0 71.5 7.9 40.3
Triplette, Jeff 17.4 138.4 8.0 43.4
Winter, Ron 14.2 121.2 8.5 54.2

NFL Continues Gag Rule -- Fining Players For Criticizing Officials

The NFL issued $20,000 fines to NFL players Denver Broncos Dre' Bly and Miami Dolphins Joey Porter for making comments that were critical of NFL referees.

Joey Porter said that he thought his team won the game, actually, "but they kept getting calls."  I wonder if that is considered referee criticism.  Sounds like just commenting on how the other team got calls -- he isn't saying that the calls were wrong.

Dre' Bly said that after getting some favorable calls in other games, "I guess they've been evaluating us and say we won games we shouldn't have won.  So, I guess they're going to get a call against us."  I wonder whether there's an argument that Dre' Bly is just applying an unfounded statistical approach to probabilities and commenting that a call will happen at some point that under an illogical approach, perhaps things will even out and go against his team.

Anyway, why does the NFL have a gag rule against commenting on NFL referees?  It is unfair to gag the coaches, players, and owners.  The sportswriters should focus harder on criticizing and commenting on NFL referees -- come on, save the players who are gagged and can't say anything.  Say it for them and let the players save their money by staying quiet!

NFL 2008 Referee Statistics through week 5 (10/6/2008)

Here we go with NFL referee statistics for 2008 through week 5 (through October 6, 2008)!

Post a comment with your ideas, criticisms, and suggestions.

Of several potential areas to track, let's start off with the total number of accepted penalties per game and the total number of accepted penalty yards per game. We can also look at the average penalty yards per accepted penalty (which referees have large-yardage penalties?)

Total accepted penalties
Jeff Triplette continues to obliterate the competition with 19 penalties per game! Next are Ed Hochuli (15.4), Ron Winter (14.8), and Wililam Carollo (14.3).
At the bottom, Walt Coleman (7.8) is followed by Gene Steratore (9.2) and Carl Cheffers (9.3)

Total penalty yards
Not a surprise that Jeff Triplette is also burning up the scoreboard on total penalty yards (149 per game). Next are Ron Winter (135), Ed Hochuli (127), and Terry McAulay (118).
At the bottom, Walt Coleman (62) then a few clustered around 72-76: Peter Morelli, Walt Anderson, Carl Cheffers, and Gene Steratore.

Yards per penalty
Who has the largest yards per penalty? Terry McAulay clings to a slender lead at 9.2 per penalty followed by Ron Winter (9.1) and Mike Carey (8.7).
At the bottom: Walt Anderson (6.6) and Peter Morelli (6.8)

Points per game
We have not done adjustments for the teams in each game, so here are some raw numbers, no doubt affected by the teams assigned to the referees:
Highest points per game is Peter Morelli (55), Terry McAulay (54.5), Bill Leavy (51.5) and Ron Winter (51.3).
At the bottom, Walt Anderson (36.2), Tony Corrente (39.4), and John Parry (39.5).

Week 5 Cheat Sheet
For this week's cheat sheet, we list the referee along with total accepted penalties, total penalty yards, yards per penalty, and total points per game. Doubt you'll see these posted on your television during the game, although I think they should be!

Ref Ttlpen Ttlyd AvgPen Ttl pts
Anderson, Walt 11.0 73 6.6 36.2
Boger, Jerome 13.5 96 7.1 49.0
Carey, Mike 11.0 95 8.7 45.0
Carollo, William 14.3 108 7.6 41.3
Cheffers, Carl 9.3 74 7.9 41.5
Coleman, Walt 7.8 62 7.9 46.4
Corrente, Tony 11.8 91 7.7 39.4
Green, Scott 11.4 85 7.5 49.4
Hochuli, Ed 15.4 127 8.2 45.6
Leavy, Bill 12.5 88 7.0 51.5
McAulay, Terry 12.8 118 9.2 54.5
Morelli, Peter 10.7 72 6.8 55.0
Parry, John 11.5 95 8.2 39.5
Riveron, Alberto 11.0 90 8.2 42.4
Steratore, Gene 9.2 76 8.3 40.4
Triplette, Jeff 19.0 149 7.9 43.3
Winter, Ron 14.8 135 9.1 51.3