Richard Sherman has some ideas to improve NFL officiating -- and they’re not bad

Richard Sherman has never been shy about expressing his opinion.

The Seattle Seahawks star cornerback weighed in on the NFL’s officiating issues Friday morning in a guest column for Sports Illustrated’s Monday Morning Quarterback. It’s not a scathing critique of referees, but rather a thoughtful piece offering four suggestions to improve the process.

First, he wants to scale back the rulebook. “There’s a great deal of redundancy in our rules that officials end up debating on the field, and these conferences disrupt the flow of the game,” Sherman writes.

“Officials become paralyzed by the process of interpretation and it leads to inaccurate calls that leave us shaking our heads days later in the film room. Chopping the rulebook in half will speed up the game and simplify things for the officials.”

Join the conversation on Facebook >>

The next thing Sherman would do is “add an eighth official, and make this position a fulltime job that requires a complex understanding of probably the most complicated rulebook in sports. It makes no sense that at least one person on every crew isn’t committing the same amount of time that the players commit to the game.”

This would allow for Sherman’s third change: reconfiguring where the officials stand on the field. “Adding another set of eyes and improving the angles will help officials become more certain about their calls and more definitive in their explanations,” he writes.

And last, he wants better communication between officials and players. “My only complaint about the actual job the officials are doing is the occasional lack of explanation for questionable calls,” he says. “When they can’t or won’t explain themselves, it becomes difficult to play because you don’t know what you’re doing wrong.”

Get the latest in sports with our free newsletter >>

Sherman also makes it clear that he is “nitpicking” and “officials in the NFL are the best and most qualified in the world.”

MORE NFL NEWS

Texans’ J.J. Watt broke his hand Wednesday but expects to play Sunday

Tom Brady comes kind of close to endorsing Donald Trump for president

Ray Rice is waiting for another chance in the NFL: ‘I’m not ready to give up’