Should the NFL Allow In-Game Interviews of Officials Like the UFL Does?

The UFL is doing something the NFL would never do. Interviewing officials mid-game about the calls they make.

Rich saw it. He loved it. He cannot imagine the NFL ever doing it.

The setup came from the weekend's broadcasts. UFL games featured sideline reporters going to officials between drives to explain calls.

"They interviewed officials mid-game about the calls that they were making," Rich said. "What did you see? Why did you make that call?"

The example Rich kept coming back to was Brock Huard interviewing what looked like a back judge.

"I saw a video of our friend Brock Huard interviewing what appeared to be like a back judge," Rich said. "About what did you see? Contact this, contact that. It was cool."

He raised the obvious next question.

"Is that in the new NFL referees?" the cast asked.

Rich knew the answer.

"That is never. That is never going to happen. Never. In a million years is that going to happen," Rich said.

He flagged what the NFL has already added. Replay-booth audio.

"You can listen in to the conversations being had during replay," Rich said. "I love that."

Rich credited Dean Blandino and Mike Pereira for pushing for the transparency.

"I tell Dean and Mike that's one of the best things that they, I love that," Rich said. "Their transparency is, you know, commendable. They've done a great job."

The reason the in-game interview will not migrate up to the NFL is structural.

"Could you imagine going up, you know, like Lisa Salters goes up to Hey, Shawn Hochuli, can you explain," Rich said. "Not the head ref. It's not even the head ref. It was just a back judge."

The format mismatch is the other reason.

"With all due respect, like dude on the sideline with his headset, microphone on, and what did you see?" Rich said. "Well, if I saw more restrictive contact, I would have called it. I couldn't believe it."

The pre-condition Rich would have to be solved is what he kept coming back to.

"You've got to media train all the officials on the field," Rich said. "Because you can't just go like, you know, I, yeah, you know, I kind of saw it, I missed it. You've got to media train your officials."

The closing bit was where Rich could not resist landing it on Patrick Mahomes.

"Hey, why you see, you know, that tush push pre-snap motion? We caught it on our cameras of our 90, you know, 5K cameras. Why aren't you protecting Patrick Mahomes better?" Rich said. "That would be an NBC game, right?"