In early June, reports indicated that CBS would not be bringing back Mike Carey, the former referee whose analysis was the subject of social-media scrutiny and outright ridicule every Sunday. And now, kids, the network may not give you another former official to mock.
“We have not found anybody for that job right now,” CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said Tuesday during CBS’s annual NFL media lunch (via Newsday). “We’re not actively looking, but if we found somebody we would reinstitute that role.”
Mike Pereira, the NFL’s former vice president of officiating, sets a standard in the same role that is tough to match, and Fox Sports wisely signed him to a contract extension last week. Pereira is almost always spot-on with his analysis and calls on replay, and Carey was … well, he was not. It’s a difficult job, and Pereira also won people over with a vigorous presence on Twitter.
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“It takes some people a while to develop into good broadcasters, and the viewing public was not as patient as I thought they might be,” McManus said.
Two seasons were not enough to change people’s minds. Never mind that USA Today found that Carey had correctly analyzed 90 percent of the reviewed plays he was asked about during the 2015 season. Carey never got the chance to swivel from trying to make gotcha predictions to waiting to analyze the final call.
Carey twice became a lightning rod during the most recent postseason for wrongly predicting booth-review outcomes in the AFC championship and Super Bowl. The first error occurred during the review of a swing pass by Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning. The throw was initially ruled an incomplete pass that traveled forward, and New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick challenged the ruling.
Carey predicted that the call would not be overturned, and when the play was ruled a fumble, he was crushed on Twitter.
During the Super Bowl, he said that a pass intended for Carolina Panthers wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery should have been ruled a catch. The call was not overturned, and Carey heard all about it.
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