Referee bias in the NFL

Quote: Face

Refs. Does the NFL rotate the crews evenly all over the place? I ask because we don't. The crew stays at that particular arena. So for our guys, I know that Jim Bob's crew is going to call every little thing, while Steve Dave's crew will let me get away with murder. When we go away, I have no idea until it's too late. If the NFL likewise keeps crews in certain areas, and say Jeff Tripplett does a lot of West Coast games, the West Coast teams would conform to his type of calls and may be vulnerable once they move to the land of Ed Hochuli.

Yes, the NFL rotates its crews so that each crew will see the same team on aveage only 2 times per season. This is done to keep familiararity out of it. They used to "break" the crews in post-season so you had in theory the "all-stars" from the whole pool, picked in part by the players themselves. I think they killed that a few years back and now just vote crew-for-crew so they get crews used to working together for post-season games.

I put the "bias" towards much of what was talked about. Crowd noise can cause a false-start or delay of game penalty. Not used to the footing can cause pass-interference or holding. Just having the crowd against you might drive an unsportsmanlike conduct. This is all for football, only sport I watch beyond just catching ladies curling if I see it when I am flipping by. Who else thinks Jennifer Jones is cute?

Beautiful study. My only contribution is that the frequency of offensive "false start" penalties would be greater for the visiting teams thanks to the "12th man"(TM) effect. This effect is illustrated quite nicely at Qwest (now CenturyLink) field in Seattle. A game between the Giants and Seahawks in 2005 resulted in 11 false starts, for example. Since 2005, there is an average of 2.36 false starts per game at CenturyLink.

Quote: Wizard

The book also says this plays an effect. As I recall, it said that when a team plays a road game, but very close to their own homes, that home field advantage almost disappears. For example, in cities with two baseball teams (New York, Chicago, SF/Oak).

What's their exact study?

I have 313 games where those teams (New York, Chicago, SF/OAK) play each other.

Home Team Won 168 games
Home Team Lost 145 games
Home Winning percentage was 53.7%

That sounds about normal for baseball.

Quote: hhhccc

What's their exact study?

I have 313 games where those teams (New York, Chicago, SF/OAK) play each other.

Home Team Won 168 games
Home Team Lost 145 games
Home Winning percentage was 53.7%

That sounds about normal for baseball.

I don't think you can compare baseball and football there. In football the field is always the same size. In baseball you have wildly differing sizes. So a team with a deep park at home may go light signing pitching and have better bats since they have 50% of games where the bat is more important.

that's B.S. it sounds like an excuse to me to try to explain the data.

Quote: boymimbo

Beautiful study. My only contribution is that the frequency of offensive "false start" penalties would be greater for the visiting teams thanks to the "12th man"(TM) effect. This effect is illustrated quite nicely at Qwest (now CenturyLink) field in Seattle. A game between the Giants and Seahawks in 2005 resulted in 11 false starts, for example. Since 2005, there is an average of 2.36 false starts per game at CenturyLink.

A very valid point. I am surprised the home advantage in the NFL is not larger than it currently is. I mean playing on your turf, sleeping in your own bed the night before, etc! If the refs were homers, why is the difference in penalties so miniscule??
PROVING ONE AGAIN THERE ARE 3 CATEGORIES OF LIARS : LIARS DAMN LIARS AND STATISTICANS