NFL fears criticism will reduce supply of future officials

The NFL fined a couple of Texans players for things said after the team's playoff loss to the Chiefs. On Tuesday, the fines imposed on running back Joe Mixon and defensive end Will Anderson Jr. were overturned on appeal.

So why did the league office swing and miss in an effort to silence players whose First Amendment rights are limited in part by the Collective Bargaining Agreement? During at least one of the two hearings, a justification was offered.

The NFL, we're told, is concerned criticism of current NFL officials will cause potential future NFL officials to never choose to become officials.

It's similar to the aftermath of the league's concussion epiphany in 2009. Parents started to steer their kids away from football at the lower levels. By reducing the total volume of football players, the potential supply of future NFL players shrinks.

And while it's easy to say "there's plenty more where that came from," the kids who don't play football at all could include players who become stars. What if, for example, Patrick Mahomes had opted for baseball?

With officials, it's the same idea. If folks who would otherwise choose to become high-school officials decide life's too short to be not only harassed during games but, given modern technologies, dragged, cooked, and/or doxxed online, the pool of potential NFL officials dries up.

And when NFL officials become gigantic pin cushions for nationwide external criticism, all the league can do is try to reduce any and all internal criticism.

The league needs people who aspire to eventually become NFL officials. If the job becomes more trouble than it's worth, the only way to make it more attractive becomes paying them more money. Which, of course, the owners don't want to do.

So the league hopes to make the job more attractive by minimizing the unattractive aspects of it. And so they'll try to silence coaches, owners, executives, and players by fining them.

It's an issue worth monitoring. If more and more people opt to not get into officiating in the first place, folks who could have done the job well enough at lower levelts to do the job at the highest level will never officiate a single game in the first place.