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stephen holder
walt anderson begins Like many people in corporate America, their Monday is spent considering what surprises might land in their company’s inbox.
Anderson has learned to expect a series of small crises, each dispatcher believing that their respective issue requires an immediate and satisfactory answer.
Anderson and his staff will do their best to comply because their company is the NFL, and the messages coming in are not from middle management, but from NFL coaches and team executives looking for answers to important questions.
For Anderson, the NFL’s rules analyst and club communications liaison, his job is important even if it seems impossible: bringing clarity to how and why game officials make decisions that can drastically affect the outcome of a game.
And do it quickly, will you?
“Most of them would like an answer Monday or Tuesday, because the NFL week waits for no one,” Anderson said.
The idea of hearing from potentially 32 angry coaches each week may not sound like a dream job.
As one team executive said, “It’s a tough job.” “Everyone’s always picking on you.”
For example, it was Anderson who heard that Baltimore Ravens tight end last week Isaiah possiblyThis would be the go-ahead touchdown catch with less than three minutes remaining in the loss. pittsburgh steelersA 13-yard touchdown catch was initially ruled possible, but after review the play was overturned and ruled an incompletion,
Ravens coach John Harbaugh spent the next day on the phone with Anderson and acting senior vice president of administration Perry Fewell, and Harbaugh was not satisfied.
The catch rule, Harbaugh said, “is as clear as mud right now. That’s how I feel about it.” He added that the conversation “didn’t clarify anything.”
Still, Anderson, a longtime referee and former senior vice president of officiating, has perhaps learned something unexpected in two seasons in his current role.
“There are very few instances when we follow up or have detailed conversations and we get angry at each other,” he said. “Many people think it’s always been that way, but that’s just not the case.”
That borderline penalty call that had your favorite team’s head coach barking at the ref on Sunday? The team probably sought clarity on that call later. And what ultimately happened was probably much less confronting.
“I think people will be surprised that they’ll say, ‘We messed up,'” John Lynch said. san francisco 49ers President/General Manager of Football Operations. “Does it make you feel better? No, but at least they’re honest about it.”
Los Angeles Rams Coach Sean McVay said, “The thing I’ve always appreciated is, if there’s a missed call, there’s an accountability. And they also want to fix it. I think that’s one of the things I’ve got a little better understanding of.”
But judging the accuracy of a call is only part of the process. Teams also want guidance to teach players how to avoid violations. They also seek help for coaching in legal techniques in practice. A maximum of 10 plays can be presented per team each week.
“It could be any topic covered in the 235 pages of the rule book,” Anderson said.
In fact, when a play ends during an NFL game, the conversation surrounding it may only be beginning. Here’s how NFL teams and the league’s officiating staff resolve disagreements after games, and how, exactly, the feedback is put to use by all parties in the future.
When kansas city chief hosted by philadelphia eagles In Week 2, head coach Andy Reid – like many others – questioned whether the Eagles’ offensive linemen were false starts on their vigorous push plays.
Reed said after the game, “The Eagles may have some players who were out early. We’ll look at that.” Although it was not clear, it is possible that the Chiefs submitted one or more plays for further clarification because they were not marked on the field.
Reed and the Chiefs had no luck following up.
Isaiah may have been robbed pic.twitter.com/CHvBBtoORT
– Ravens Realm (@RealmRavens) 7 December 2025
The situation received significantly more attention than a normal inquiry, which usually involves a written response. More complex questions were raised in virtual meetings between teams and league officiating staff, but it went even further.
The NFL sent a memo to all 32 teams stating that the plays should have been flagged for false starts and that push plays going forward would be further investigated. The memo was also accompanied by the league’s weekly executive video, which is broadcast to teams and game officials to address several situations from the previous weekend.
Additionally, Anderson creates weekly videos that are shared with the general public, addressing both right and wrong calls. In the case of the Eagles–Chiefs game, he appeared on NFL Network the following days and addressed the missed call during a rules segment.
“When the ball is set, the center can be over the ball, but all other linemen have to be behind the football,” he said. “They have to make sure they come back far enough.”
The whole thing probably brought little solace to Reed, whose team lost 20-17 to the Eagles. But the NFL says this is its effort to increase transparency at a time when it is considered important to do so.
In this age of high-definition, big-screen television, and with the proliferation of sports betting and the suspicion it creates, it is more important than ever to stay ahead.
Think of it as the NFL’s answer to the NBA last two minute reportWhich assesses every call made by officials in the last two minutes of each game and provides a public accounting of those decisions.
Follow-up does not always end in agreement. Take, for example, the recent example involving a field goal attempt. minnesota vikings rioter Will ReichardtWho emphasized his missed 51-yard attempt against cleveland browns A cable used to operate an overhead television camera came into contact during a game in London. The Vikings submitted the play for review, and the matter was escalated to the highest levels, even being discussed at the October owners meeting.
At the end, after an investigationThe league said the ball did not make contact with the cable. What appeared to be a strange trajectory was actually the result of an optical illusion from a field-level TV camera, the NFL said in a statement to ESPN.
These exchanges between NFL teams and league officials are nothing new.
It has always been considered prudent for teams to have more information about post-game decisions. But a more formal process and Anderson’s permanent appointment to the newly created role have helped make the process more productive.
“When mistakes happen, you have to admit them,” green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “And I think they’ve done a much better job of it.”
Arizona Cardinals Coach Jonathan Gannon suggested that this process has allowed him to become more open-minded about umpiring.
“I feel like sometimes everyone wants it to be very consistent and have the same calls for all the different games and all the different teams,” he said. “There is a human element in officiating. So, if you ask a question to any two human beings, there will be a slight difference. So, I think there is a human element in officiating, you have to understand that part as well.”
Still, there are inevitable mixed emotions that sometimes come with learning that a team got a raw deal.
“That’s why a few days after the game, I don’t even bother turning them on,” LaFleur said. “It’s not going to change the outcome.”
McVay said: “It doesn’t make me feel any better. You try to keep it going and control what you can. But, I mean, I think you can probably guess. I feel angry.”
raises McVey’s point Question: Is there any practical application to the information teams gain in this process?
without a doubt.
“I take it straight to the living room, right then and there,” atlanta falcons Coach Raheem Morris said. “Go straight to our teachable moments when we talk each week.”
Morris said, “I don’t really need them to admit their mistake or do anything wrong. I really just try to figure out what we can do better so that it doesn’t happen again. For example, stopping calls. Something happened and it got called a few different times. Just trying to find different approaches and different areas and what can we do differently if we’re doing something that seems illegal.”
Anderson said most of the communication at the beginning of the week comes from events from games that were played the previous weekend. But as the next series of games approaches, Anderson said his staff begins to receive inquiries that relate to specific topics of upcoming opponents for the teams.
“It’s about helping our coaches learn, understand the ‘why’ behind it, and then we can do the same for our players,” Gannon said.
There will probably never be a panacea for substitution issues. It is an imperfect process, full of subjectivity, prone to human error. But from league officials to coaches to team executives, there seems to be consensus that the conversation is helpful and an important step in the right direction.
“It’s great,” said Lynch, a member of the league’s competition committee, which makes recommendations to owners about rule changes and other parts of the game. “There’s no agenda. Well, there’s always an agenda.”
“Everyone is trying to win. But I think for someone who cares deeply about the game and has been involved with it for a long time, what I like is that at the end of the day, everyone is trying to make the game better.”
