Can the NFL Game Even Be Adequately Officiated Anymore?

To everyone watching the game on TV or not at field level, it was clear that Nickell Robey-Coleman’s hit on Tommylee Lewis should have been flagged. But the officials saw something different, illuminating just how difficult it can be to call an NFL game in real time.

The counter-argument has been the same for years now: We bystanders couldn’t possibly fathom what it’s like to officiate an NFL game.

The needs are almost impossible—mental dexterity to associate a piece of legislative minutiae from the league’s 89-page rule book with a millisecond-long flashpoint in a game played by the fastest and strongest people on earth, years of expertise to properly position yourself for an adequate view…