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Post by FredFan7 on Oct 25, 2018 12:15:45 GMT -5
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Post by FredFan7 on Oct 25, 2018 13:34:32 GMT -5
If you're having a hard time opening the article on Football Zebras, our web host crashed because of so much interest in the article.
Host has been alerted and we hope to be back up and running soon.
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Post by FredFan7 on Oct 25, 2018 14:03:26 GMT -5
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sab2423
Division I White Hat
Posts: 153
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Post by sab2423 on Oct 25, 2018 15:41:37 GMT -5
Think it's down again.
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Post by sullim4 on Oct 25, 2018 15:46:01 GMT -5
Same here, can't view it. Can you share in this thread?
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Post by zebrablog on Oct 25, 2018 15:50:17 GMT -5
Football Zebras exclusive
In a stunning move, the NFL has fired down judge Hugo Cruz, number 94, effective immediately, which has been confirmed by 7 sources who have firsthand knowledge of the situation.
This is the first time in the Super Bowl era that the NFL has fired an official in the middle of the regular season. Previously, the NFL has suspended officials for major mistakes and, if warranted, dropped the official in the offseason. Others had their fate sealed early in the season, but completed the rest of the year, as had happened to a rookie official who fell asleep during a preseason clinic. (He never saw a second season.)
The NFL Referees Association vowed to fight the termination. "The NFL has a troubling history of knee-jerk reactions with an eye on public relations, and clearly it has not learned from past mistakes," said Scott Green, executive director of the NFLRA in an e-mail to Football Zebras. "The NFLRA will protect the collectively bargained rights of all officials and will challenge this reckless decision through the Grievance process."
An NFL spokesman declined to comment.
One of the sources confirmed that Cruz was not “maintaining a very high level of performance over a sustained period,” while another told Football Zebras in March that Cruz’s future with the league was already in jeopardy. This is partially borne out by his lack of postseason assignments for the two seasons he would have qualified for, not counting assignment as an alternate last season. Another oddity that our sources could not find a reason for was that Cruz was assigned to a different crew for 3 of the 6 regular season games he has worked this year. He was assigned to Brad Allen’s crew in Week 6 when a crucial missed false start call should have nullified a Chargers touchdown (or, more accurately, the play would have been shut down long before that).
Even though the miscall was very significant, no call on its own would prompt a firing. Basic human resources training would tell you that there is a document trail of transgressions that will make the case. It is, apparently, the last straw for senior vice president of officiating Al Riveron. Cruz was off last week, so the Week 6 Chargers-Browns game was his last.
As surprising as a midseason firing is, any firing for that matter is a rare occurrence. Although there are cases of officials seemingly coerced into retirement, mostly to manage turnover, there have been very few outright terminations. In the last 10 years, one official was dismissed for an undisclosed off-field issue, and another was dismissed due to performance following a crucial error in the season finale. That’s it. Notably, the NFL attempted to terminate 8 officials due to performance issues in 2003; the NFLRA was able to successfully get most of them rehired or assigned to the replay booth.
But one source said, as surprising as the move is, when an official does not perform well “there are consequences, which can include termination of employment.”
Cruz’s ascension to the NFL happened almost as quickly as his downfall. Before joining the NFL in 2015, Cruz was recruited by former NFL referee Gerry Austin, who is the head of football officiating for Conference USA. Cruz worked for 5 seasons, where he was assigned to 2 bowl games, a conference championship game, and 2 East-West Shrine games. The NFL brought him in as a preseason development official in the first 2 seasons the program existed, leading to his hire the following season. He is the second official to have left the NFL after entering the league through the development program; classmate Ed Walker retired during the last offseason due to an injury.
Cruz has also worked as a minor league baseball umpire.
Referee Carl Cheffers will now have a vacancy on his crew which can be handled in one or more of these ways: (1) Line judge Mike Spanier is a swing official this season, which means he is placed on a different crew or wherever needed, and occasionally substitutes as a down judge. Spanier could finish out the season on Cheffers’ crew. (2) With multiple teams on bye weeks now, more officials are drawing bye weeks. A down judge or line judge could work during their regularly scheduled off week. (3) An official can work a Thursday night game and a Sunday or Monday game in the same week.
This week, Cheffers’ crew coincidentally has the Browns, who were on defense for that touchdown play. Spanier will work as down judge on the crew this week, according to a source.
We began this season saying that Riveron needed a good season for job security. Unless the decision came from his superiors, Riveron is sending a clear message to the staff by taking such an unprecedented step and not waiting until the end of the season.
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Post by zebrablog on Oct 25, 2018 16:15:21 GMT -5
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Post by FredFan7 on Oct 26, 2018 9:17:51 GMT -5
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Post by FredFan7 on Oct 26, 2018 9:21:53 GMT -5
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Post by russ on Oct 26, 2018 9:25:30 GMT -5
I have a lot of thoughts on this. Personally I do not have a problem with a league dismissing an Official for poor performance. It happens in the real world it should happen here to. However I do not like the idea of firing an Official mid season. To me it sets a bad precedent. There are still 10 weeks left in the season so Cruz was probably going to work at least 8 more games. Let him work those games and see if there is any improvement. A rough start to the season does not mean he will automatically end it poorly. It might not be enough to make the playoffs but perhaps he could have saved his job with an improved second half. If you want to take him off primetime games fine but to fire him in the middle of the season seems to be an overreaction.
Now for the hard part because I hate to kick somebody while they are still down. But I watch a lot of football an observe a lot of Officials both pro and college. In his 3.5 years in the NFL Cruz to me never looked like an NFL Official and really struggled pretty much everytime I saw him. If you were to ask me which Official is most likely to get fired at the end of the season I actually would have said Cruz.
This goes to a bigger point that me and others have made before. I do not like hiring Officials from Group of 5 conferences and history shows it more often than not does not result in the best NFL Officials. Cruz came from C-USA and was clearly a disaster. Other C-USA Officials Sarah Thomas and Ramon George have been hit or miss in their early careers. Even going back a ways Jim Quirk Jr is consistently missing the playoffs and Adrian Hill is extremely inconsistent playoff wise. Barry Anderson has figured out the last few years but even he had a slow start to his career and we know Jerome Boger has not been a particularly good Referee. The biggest success stories from C-USA have been the Baynes brothers and even so Rusty spent his last College season in the Big 12. I know they are hiring from C-USA due to their relationship with Gerry Austin but history shows it might not be the best idea. Let the aspiring NFL Officials from C-USA go to Power 5 conferences before hiring them. If they are good enough to be in the NFL than they need to at least be good enough to be upgraded in conference.
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Post by FredFan7 on Oct 26, 2018 9:25:34 GMT -5
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Post by russ on Oct 26, 2018 9:28:09 GMT -5
That is a good point from Terry and something that has really been bothering me since the news came out. Cruz was a playoff alternate last year meaning in theory he was a tier 2 Official. Even if he was tier 3 his first 2 seasons I don't think you can fire an Official because they were on track to be tier 3. Like I said above, wait until the season is over so you can fully judge his season. It makes me feel like there is something more to this. Switching him between different crews most weeks can't have helped him either. |
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Post by FredFan7 on Oct 26, 2018 9:32:14 GMT -5
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Post by tj888 on Oct 27, 2018 19:54:52 GMT -5
I am honestly not surprised. I thought Hugo Cruz was one of the worst if not the worst DJ/LJs in the NFL. I said so as early as in 2015 (his first year). I am wondering if any other officials (Tom Stephen, Greg Bradley) are in danger of losing their jobs?
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Post by russ on Oct 28, 2018 16:59:09 GMT -5
I am honestly not surprised. I thought Hugo Cruz was one of the worst if not the worst DJ/LJs in the NFL. I said so as early as in 2015 (his first year). I am wondering if any other officials (Tom Stephen, Greg Bradley) are in danger of losing their jobs? Stephan would probably be asked to retire rather than fired as he has been in the league since 1999. He also just worked the playoffs 2 years ago. I think he is fine for now. To me Bradley has to be in trouble He still hasn't worked a playoff game since 2010. What helps him out is he has been an alternate a number of times so he probably isn't quite teir 3 enough, but he certainly has had his struggles. Deep guys David Meslow, Greg Yette (probably Ok as he is often an alternate) and John Jenkins should probably watch out as well. Jeff Lamberth is probably a candidate for a forced retirement also. |
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