Top 10 reasons the NFL needs a new head of officials

The Party Bus Incident

Dean Blandino was caught by TMZ this summer hanging out with Stephen Jones on the Cowboys party bus on the Sunset Strip. It may not have been too big a deal, but NFL executives were reportedly irate that Blandino was in a situation that appeared to call into question his ability to stay unbiased.

How irate were these executives? This irate:

"“That’s definitely Dean,” said an official with one club… “Is the league trying to tell you it’s not him? What is the league telling you guys about it? That looks horrible. I can’t think of another owner in the league who wouldn’t be pissed off after seeing that.” “So, should I have my owner take him to a strip club when he visits us?” asked one team official, hypothetically. “Is that how it works? We like Dean a lot, but let me tell you, if that was him out with (the owner of a rival of the club this official works for), my owner would be going nuts. This just can’t happen. “It’s total hypocrisy. This is a league where some people are above the law, but if you are a coach or a player or a low-level team employee, look out — they’ll throw the book at you. They take away your pension. I’ll give Stephen credit, at least they took a bus. (Colts owner Jim) Irsay should have got a bus a long time ago. Have they gotten around to disciplining him yet?” ” There shouldn’t be any situation like this going on that could cloud his judgment. How is this protecting the shield? The league loves to throw that term around when it applies to players. So how is this not an issue now?” “That’s definitely Dean,” said an official with one club… “Is the league trying to tell you it’s not him? What is the league telling you guys about it? That looks horrible. I can’t think of another owner in the league who wouldn’t be pissed off after seeing that.”“So, should I have my owner take him to a strip club when he visits us?” asked one team official, hypothetically. “Is that how it works? We like Dean a lot, but let me tell you, if that was him out with (the owner of a rival of the club this official works for), my owner would be going nuts. This just can’t happen.“It’s total hypocrisy. This is a league where some people are above the law, but if you are a coach or a player or a low-level team employee, look out — they’ll throw the book at you. They take away your pension. I’ll give Stephen credit, at least they took a bus. (Colts owner Jim) Irsay should have got a bus a long time ago. Have they gotten around to disciplining him yet?”” There shouldn’t be any situation like this going on that could cloud his judgment. How is this protecting the shield? The league loves to throw that term around when it applies to players. So how is this not an issue now?”"

It certainly wasn’t a good look for an NFL executive – especially later on in the season in consideration of a bad call that appeared to go the Cowboys way.

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