Aaron Rodgers Rips NFL For How They Select Playoff Game Referee Crews

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The NFL has an officiating problem. Everyone knows it. It reared its ugly head in Week 17 and led to a very controversial ending in the Dallas Cowboys victory over the Detroit Lions. New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers weighed-in on Tuesday and ripped the league for how it picks playoff crews.

The NFL has 17 part-time officiating crews for the season. That makes sense, since on a full week there are 16 NFL games. Plus, they need a backup crew on standby.

However, for the NFL playoffs, there are no more than six games on any given weekend. Theoretically, a crew could do a Saturday Wild Card game and the Monday Night Wild Card game in the same week. But, let's even remove that possibility.

So, the league really only needs to identify its six-best crews and have them referee Wild Card Weekend. Then, they could take their four-best crews to the Divisional Round, two best to Conference Championship Sunday and only the best reaches the Super Bowl.

Meritocracy, a novel concept.

Aaron Rodgers blasts NFL for not choosing the best referees for the playoffs

Rodgers says that the NFL tries to spread out its playoff assignments to get more officials involved. It's unclear whether diversity, equity and inclusion plays a role in these assignments.

Instead of just using the best six crews, Rodgers claims the NFL uses as many as 11 different crews for the playoffs.

"As players, we know who the best refs are ... there's too many times over the years where it wasn't a true meritocracy for the playoffs," Rodgers said. "Do you really need to have 10 or 11 of the ... 17 crews be represented? No, you don't.

"It should be the top of the top."

Hard to argue with Rodgers here. Why don't the best crews ref all the playoff games? The best teams make the playoffs and the winners advance. Shouldn't the referee crews face the same process?

New York Jets QB Aaron Rodgers goes off on the NFL for not picking the best referees to officiate the playoffs.

New York Jets QB Aaron Rodgers goes off on the NFL for not picking the best referees to officiate the playoffs. (Photos via Getty Images)

Speaking of that, the referee that played the major role in the Lions-Cowboys controversy is immediately thrust back into the spotlight.

According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, Brad Allen and is crew are scheduled to officiate the Ravens-Steelers game on Saturday afternoon with a playoff spot potentially on the line for Pittsburgh.

Honestly, I don't necessarily blame Allen for the two-point conversion debacle. In fact, it was a call made earlier in the game that was really bad on a phantom tripping.

Still, this is an overall terrible look for the NFL.

Doesn't seem like they care much, though.

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Dan began his sports media career at ESPN, where he survived for nearly a decade. Once the Stockholm Syndrome cleared, he made his way to Outkick. He is secure enough in his masculinity to admit he is a cat-enthusiast with three cats, one of which is named “Brady” because his wife wishes she were married to Tom instead of him.