After a season of botched calls from replacement referees, several NFL officials remain deeply upset about the grading system used to choose the referees for the Super Bowl, according to Yahoo! Sports.
Some officials believe that the NFL selects who will referee the Super Bowl based on favoritism and not solely on merit.
"You see grades being changed, constantly being changed, only for certain people," one official said.
"It's disheartening," said another official, "and you never think at this level that would happen. It's the individuals running the show that have created this mess. If you talk to 121 guys, there will be 100-plus who say the system is horrendous."
Officials are overseen by Ray Anderson, the NFL's vice president of football operations, who has been at his position since Roger Goodell promoted him after becoming commissioner in 2006. Officials said the mystery of league decisions adds to resentment among their peers. "It takes the integrity away from the process," said one official who.
One official brought up "diversity" as a reason for assigning officials to the Super Bowl. This leads to Jerome Boger, the NFL's presumed selection to referee Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3. Boger is an African American, and that official said, "This is a way to take care of that."
The league has recently come under fire for its lack of diversity in the head coaching hires, being that with eight head coaching vacancies at the end of the 2012 regular season; not one African American was hired.
Boger being named has head referee of the Super Bowl makes him the first minority to serve as head ref for the big game.
Yet still, after all the allegations behind the selection system, one official said the grading system has caused problems for many years, and is only being discussed now because of Boger's inexperience.
"You gotta have the best people doing the biggest games," he said. "It hasn't been the case for 10 years."
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