It’s been a tough year for NFL officials. The league made some of the most significant rule changes and changes in what they wanted called. Four referees retired, so this is the youngest group of referees in league history.

Kevin Seifert from ESPN.com joins us on Schooled with the Professor to judge how officials have done this year. The main debate this offseason was how officials were going to call personal fouls with helmet hits, particularly on quarterbacks. As it turned out, the number of calls for helmet hits haven’t been a much as expected. Instead, roughing the passer penalties have taken the main stage of controversy. Kevin breaks done how those calls have been made.

Out of the blue Tuesday, the news from league is it wants to upgrade the punt return roles. As Kevin states, this might be a change not necessarily for safety reasons. Punt returns are the most penalized play in football. The league is even soliciting fan input on how to improve the punt return play.

And since Seifert lives in Minneapolis, he also throws in a preview on the Vikings prior to Monday night’s game in Seattle.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.