When Mike Pereira speaks, everybody in the NFL should listen. The Fox Sports rules analyst says it’s time for the league to hire its part-time referees as full-time employees. After another weekend filled with head-scratching calls by the zebras, it’s hard to argue with the original TV rules analyst.

As I wrote months ago, NFL officials frequently ruined the television viewing experience for fans this year. Too many game telecasts were marred by ticky-tack or questionable calls. It got to the point where every time there was a big play, you held your breath to see whether there were any flags. Too often, there was no pace, no flow to the telecast. There was no consistency in the calls from game to game. And a baffling lack of transparency by the league.

Fan frustration reached a crescendo Saturday during the CBS telecast of the Bills-Broncos AFC divisional playoff game. Like millions of viewers, I thought Brandin Cooks of the Bills caught the pass from Josh Allen and was down by contact. Sorry, said the refs. Don’t believe your lying eyes. By the byzantine rules of the NFL it was actually a strip and an interception by Ja’Quan McMillian of the Broncos. Even famed defensive back Richard Sherman wasn’t buying the call. Bye-bye, Bills. 

Cue the video of a weeping Allen at the podium and distraught Bills players in the locker room. The refs effectively ended Sean McDermott’s job as Bills coach after nine seasons. To rub salt in the wound of fuming Buffalo fans, Davante Adams of the Rams was involved in a nearly identical play the next day during Bears-Rams. A different crew of officials called it a completion. Nobody batted an eye. Moreover, the league’s explanation that it has an entire staff of instant replay officials handling such calls came as a surprise to some NFL clubs, noted ProFootballTalk.

During an interview with columnist Scott Fowler of The Charlotte Observer, Pereira said the 17 referees who lead NFL officiating crews should be full-time employees. Put them all in the same office year-round, said Pereira. That way they can train together, commiserate and hopefully improve performance and consistency. 

“I think it’s time to look at full-time officials. Not everyone. But I do believe that the person that represents the crew in the field, the guy in the white hat, the referee—I think those 17 people should be full-time working together all year,” said Pereira. “Not going home in between games, but going to an officiating institute and breaking down all the games together, so the messages are consistent. … I’m not a fan of making everyone full-time, but make the referees full-time. To me, it’s time for that.”

Pereira had another interesting proposal. What about the NFL adopting the college football defensive pass interference (DPI) rule of a 15-yard penalty and automatic first down, he asked. A 15-yard call would be more in line with other big penalties, he noted. And it would eliminate the questionable 40-yard to 50-yard DPIs that cause fans to break their TV sets. 

“In real times, it’s the hardest call on the field to make, in my opinion. And it adds an element of pressure on the officials,” Pereira noted.

The 75-year-old served as an NFL ref and the league’s VP of officiating before becoming the first TV rules analyst in 2010. The opportunity is coming to turn Pereira’s suggestion into a reality. 

The league’s collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Referees Association expires in May. If the primary reason the league doesn’t want to make refs full-time employees is they don’t want to pay, then that’s penny-wise and pound-foolish.

The NFL is on a heater TV-wise, with regular-season viewership reaching a 37-year high of 18.7 million per game. It’s the most popular sports league, and by far the most popular brand in all of entertainment. About the only thing that could derail the NFL would be a betting scandal. As Sports Illustrated NFL writer Albert Breer told Dan Patrick, the league is playing with fire by ignoring growing fan suspicions over officiating. 

Public trust in NFL refs is at an all-time low, Breer noted. At a time when the NFL and teams are pocketing millions from sports betting operators, the last thing they want is for fans to start asking whether the fix is in. 

“I really think that they need to go in this offseason and tear the thing down to the studs,” Breer told Patrick. “Take all the technology available, take the crews they have available, maybe add sky judges to each crew, and rebuild it all together. I just think what’s happening right now flat out isn’t working in the eyes of the public—and the public trust is such an important thing for a professional sport.”

Here’s the bottom line. Does the NFL want to tarnish its golden brand by “Fail Mary”-like controversy by part-time refs who go back to selling cars the day after the Super Bowl? Or even the whiff some flag-happy refs are on the take? 

No, it doesn’t. Neither do the TV networks and streamers paying $111 billion for live game rights. The NFL is the best at almost everything. So invest in quality and training with the refs. If shelling out a few million in salary to refs to make them better at the jobs is the cost, then I call that a small price to pay. Wake up, NFL. It’s later than you think.

Former NBC and ESPN sportscaster Michele Tafoya filed paperwork Tuesday to run for Senate in Minnesota as a Republican.

Tafoya would be running for the seat vacated by Democrat Sen. Tina Smith, who is not seeking reelection. Smith first won the seat after Sen. Al Franken resigned in 2018, and subsequently won a full term in 2020. 

Tafoya did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Front Office Sports. 

Tafoya stepped away from her role as a sideline reporter for NBC’s Sunday Night Football, which she’d held for more than a decade, in 2022 to pursue a career in politics.  

“I got to a point in my life where I wanted to try other things, and there are some things that are really important to me,” she told sports media reporter Richard Deitsch at the time. “This is not to say that sports isn’t an important field, that my job isn’t an important job. But in my position, I was not as free to be as vocal about world events that I’m concerned about. It’s not because I was told to shut up. I want to be very clear about that. But look, if you’re on a show like Sunday Night Football, which is the No. 1 show in prime time for 11 straight years, unprecedented, the last thing they want to do is invite controversy.”

Other candidates in the Republican primary in the Minnesota Senate race include former NBA player Royce White, former Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze, retired Navy officer Tom Weiler, and former Minnesota Senate minority leader David Hann. 

If she wins the primary, Tafoya would have a challenge in the general election, as The Hill notes a Republican has not won a statewide race in Minnesota since Gov. Tim Pawlenty in 2006.

In announcing her candidacy on X/Twitter, Tafoya posted Wednesday: “For years, I walked the sidelines when the stakes were the highest, and that job taught me how leadership really works. I’m running for U.S. Senate to bring that experience to Washington and deliver the real results Minnesota deserves.”

Popular multiplatform host Rachel DeMita has agreed to a licensing deal to bring the YouTube and podcast feeds for her Courtside Club show to SiriusXM, the company confirmed to Front Office Sports. 

FOS spoke to DeMita about the growth of her show—where she discusses the NBA and WNBA—reaching new audiences during Caitlin Clark’s rookie year, and promptly losing tens of thousands of followers on Instagram after she shared posts from her wedding. 

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

Front Office Sports: How did this SiriusXM deal come together?

Rachel DeMita: So Courtside Club has been around since 2022. We had Season One on ESPN platforms and since then it’s been a solo show and it’s just myself. I have three other guys that help me work on the show. We were looking for someone to partner with who kind of understood the show and could just help us to support it because it’s really been like something that has been so homegrown. I went over to [talent agency] UTA recently, and we started shopping the show and we talked to a lot of different partners who were interested, but Sirius just made the most sense.

FOS: You’ve got over 1.5 million followers across your YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, etc. How do you not go crazy with all the comments and notifications constantly buzzing?

RD: Notifications are not turned on, so I have to actively go look at them if I want to see them. But also, I’ve been doing this for years, I’ve been in the social media space for over a decade. I started on YouTube, so I’m used to the comments flowing in. When I was younger, I used to cry about them. Now I just smile and keep it pushing. 

And honestly, if you choose to be a public-facing figure in this industry, you know the extra noise comes with it.

FOS: Would it be accurate to say that Courtside Club really took off with a new audience during Caitlin Clark’s rookie season in the NBA?

RD: For sure. And that’s the thing, too: Season One of the show was mostly an interview show and I knew when I took Courtside Club back to my personal YouTube channel and we fully owned the show, I was like, “I need to get my audience familiar with my voice.” 

Because if you do have an interview-only show, your view counts are contingent on how good your guest is. And I said, “You know what, people need to be comfortable with my voice first.” And it was also me finding out, “What are these topics that I’m truly passionate about talking about?” 

Obviously I’ve been covering the NBA for over a decade and I was a basketball player myself. So, basketball is always going to be my anchor in anything that I do. And then obviously you have this superstar in Caitlin Clark who just takes over the sport like we have never seen before. It was just such a massive story, and a lot of people are interested in her story. 

FOS: We reported that you were let go from your gig as a Big 3 correspondent for tweeting about Clark during a game you were covering. What’s your perspective, looking back on that?

RD: I don’t look backwards so much. I’ve moved on from it, and I actually did a whole episode on Courtside Club just kind of giving everybody my side of the story and what actually happened. But I’ve moved on from it. Everything has been great. And I’m sure that they’ve moved on as well. So we’re moving forward over here.

FOS: You’ve had great traction of late, from the SiriusXM deal to YouTube and socials getting a lot of engagement. Was there ever a time where you had self-doubt about whether you would “make it”?

RD: There’s always self-doubt, for sure. But I think with Courtside Club, my goal has always been to continue making the content better, and that’s always been my focus. I’m so obsessed with it. And that was the thing when I brought my show back to owning it fully on my channel. I’m like, “I want to make something that I would also like to watch.”

I was looking back at some of my old episodes, and I’m like, “These are boring. I wouldn’t even tune into this. How can I make the show better?” Everybody is always trying to make sure their titles and thumbnails are good. That’s a huge part of it, absolutely. And we do study that. But at the end of the day, if you click on one of my episodes, if you’re listening to one of my episodes, if you’re watching it on YouTube and you’re not entertained and informed, if you don’t have something to walk away with, then it’s not good content. And in this landscape when there’s literally so many podcasts—everybody has a podcast—you have to be able to be truly authentic, talk about something that you’re passionate about. 

And the fans see that, so I feel like Courtside Club is in a really good space, but I still feel like it’s only the beginning for us. I have so many goals and aspirations with the show—and we’re in such a good spot now with Sirius XM. 

FOS: When you revealed your relationship with [former Thunder guard] Andre Roberson, you said you lost thousands of followers. How many exactly did you lose, and was that something surreal to watch happen in real time?

RD: So it was actually when we got married. We’ve been together for a very long time. When I posted the wedding, I think it was 30,000—maybe a little bit more. 

But honestly I’m very happy in my personal life, and I don’t monitor social media like that. I would lose my mind if I was worried about how many followers I was gaining or losing. At the end of the day I’m focused on making sure my content is really good. And my personal life is thriving. So if people are mad about that, totally fine. They can go follow somebody else who isn’t married.