Head of refs announces new mechanics in wake of administrative errors

This point from the weekly “Official Review” segment deserved a post as a newsworthy item in its own right. Mike Pereira, the league’s vice-president of officiating, addressed three critical administrative errors in Week 10, which we discussed in length. (video, discussion of new mechanics at 6:10)

One of the errors has lead to a change in operation. When a coach has exhausted his coach’s challenges, he will be informed by the referee, much like when all three timeouts have been used. Quoting Pereira:

We are going to initiate a change in …  these situations. When a team uses all of their timeouts, [the current practice is that] the referee has to go over and tell the head coach. We are going to same thing when he has used his challenges. We are going to go inform the coach face-to-face that he’s used all of his challenges.

Usually, this is done by announcement, but the new rule will require the referee to inform the coach, consistent with Rule 15, Section 2, Article 4:

The Referee must notify the coach and field captain when his team has used its three charged time outs, signal both coaches when two minutes remain in a half, and positively inform the coach of any disqualified player. He may not delegate any such notifications to any other person. He will announce on the microphone when each period is ended.