I don’t know what an official makes in the NFL, but I’d bet they’re underpaid.
And it’s a difficult job in a fast/paced game, so mistakes happen.
To be clear, most of the problem (IMO) has to do with many rule-changes making the game harder to officiate vs easier. Also, some rule changes seem to be slanted to try to increase scoring (which sometimes makes it tough to make the "right" call). The lack of accountability in struggling to make officiating more consistent in the NFL extends way beyond the guys wearing stripes on the field.
Kind of along the same lines, I believe there has been a fairly significant amount of turnover in NFL reffing crews (outside of any impending work stoppage).
I just have a hard time with the NFL not really doing a whole lot for standards and accountability for bad reffing (I know they're graded which goes towards scheduling in the playoffs... this isn't accountability) while in the same breath making the game harder to ref and not investing in officiating consistency (boggles my mind how little technology is used).
