Officiating has never been better

"Ask Vic" will publish on Mondays and Thursdays through the offseason.

Dan from Tulare, SD
Glad GM Vic didn't draft Jonah Williams for the Packers in the first round.
He was picked one spot ahead of the Packers, so GM Vic wouldn't have had the chance to screw it up. Williams' injury is an example of how quickly need changes.

John from Austin, TX
Why wouldn't a team conduct training camp at its normal practice facility. Nowadays, I can't imagine an alternate location would have better facilities. What is gained by going off-site?
The Jaguars and Packers practice at their full-time facility; the Steelers train at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., where the Steelers built a dormitory, a field and a facility that makes St. Vincent home away from home. I can't imagine the Steelers not training at St. Vincent, that's how powerful that tradition is. The nice thing about training at home is not having to pack and move; there's no distance disconnect. The nice thing about training at St. Vincent is players and coaches live at the facility; there's no driving to a hotel or a college dormitory in a neighboring town.

Scott from Hamlin, NY
Rodgers held onto the ball a long time last season. Does this show an inability for the receivers to get open? What changes this year to make people think it will suddenly change?
The young receivers will be better for the year of development they received, and I suspect the expectation of a better offense is built on the hope the Packers will be using better plays and will have a new resolve.

Nick from Owego, NY
I love defense. Which team do you think will have the top defense next year?
I think the Jaguars, Packers and Steelers will each have strong defenses this year. Leaguewide, I think the Bears could be special on defense.

Brad from Tucson, AZ
Call me a curmudgeon, but longevity statistics don't carry much Hall of Fame weight with me. Classic baseball examples are Phil Niekro and Gaylord Perry, both 300-plus career wins but over decades with an average of 14-15 wins and 12 losses. Did teams fear facing them like Koufax or Gibson? No, of course not. Good players, but not immortals. That's true for Gore, Martin and Monk. Longevity should be celebrated, not enshrined. OK?
I'm sympathetic to your point. Martin has the defining postseason moment to go with his body of work. In my mind, that makes him a complete and worthy selection to the Hall of Fame. Gore doesn't have the fame, but it's nearly impossible to ignore his body of work as worthy of selection. It's not as though there isn't precedent. Dan Dierdorf immediately comes to mind. James Lofton played in three Super Bowls and caught eight passes and scored no touchdowns, but there's no denying his body of work.

​Grant from Plymouth, MN
You said Fred Taylor was the best combination of size and speed you ever covered. Forget size. Who was the fastest player you ever covered?
Dwight Stone. He was so fast he lost control of his feet and they ran out of bounds.

John from Austin, TX
I find it ironic the Saints (and Saints fans) feel so victimized by a couple of blown PI calls, when a few weeks earlier they were the clear beneficiaries of phantom PI calls against the Steelers that put them in the driver's seat for the No. 1 seed in the first place. All the crybabies need to go back into their holes. Replay should be abolished. When a call is blown, peeple need to grow up and move on with their lives.
There's no putting the replay rabbit back in the hat. Replay review is in control of the game. It was inevitable, from the moment TV instant replay was born in the Army-Navy game of 1963.

Everett from Stillwater, MN
I enjoy your column and thank you for doing it even in retirement. Wondering why you didn’t include Joe Montana in your top five QBs.
That wasn't a list of my top five all-time quarterbacks, that was a list of my top five regular season quarterbacks. To make it onto that list you need to be a quarterback who did record-breaking things in the regular season, but your postseason record isn't the equal of your regular season excellence.

Robert from Chicago, IL
Watching the contract negotiation ballet play out in Jacksonville, it seems like the Jaguars are in a tight spot. They have Yannick Ngakoue wanting an extension right now, Jalen Ramsey after the end of this season, and also Myles Jack next year. In my mind, these three seem like the foundational guys for the defense. Do you think all three could end up staying?
In my opinion, what the Jaguars do in the offseason begins with what Ramsey does during the season. If I'm Tom Coughlin, Ramsey's got to prove to me he won't be a distraction. Let's also not forget, there were some longevity concerns about his knee coming out of college.

Sam from Nashville, TN
Last week, a brawl broke out during a baseball game in Colorado. It wasn't just any game, it was a game of seven-year-old kids being officiated by a 13 year-old umpire. Has the desire for full consistency in officiating turned us mad? How do we fix it?
Look what it did to Mike McCarthy. A high school basketball game? Really? We've developed this mania for getting it right. Achieving the proper perspective about fairness begins with learning how to not take ourselves too seriously. Good luck with that. I think the only way to deal with this problem is to ignore the complainers.

Neil from Cheddar, UK
I have been listening to the Michael Lewis podcast called "Against the Rules," where he has some very interesting insights into the state of various forms of officiating within the USA. He truly believes the use of instant replay has improved the accuracy of decisions but has actually made fans even angrier at them. How can this be and what are your honest thoughts as to how you would like to see instant replay used.
The officiating in the NFL has never been better but the dissatisfaction has never been greater. Who's to blame, the league? Yeah, right. I'd like to see the league turn a deaf ear to complaints, beginning with no postgame review and comments on controversial plays. Let the fans complain -- controversy is good for the game -- but they can't be permitted to think their voice can create change. The league's overreaction to the pass interference non-call in the Rams-Saints game is a terrible mistake.

Dave from Savage, MN
Who had the strangest running style you've seen?
Walter Payton. I wish I would've had more opportunity to cover his games. He was in the other conference, so to speak, and the Bears were low-profile for most of his career, so I didn't see a lot of him.

​Ethan from Ontario, Canada
I read an interesting article by a former NFL player. He talks about his struggles living and interacting with people in the real world because he sees how fake a lot of people are after going through the blunt honesty of the football world. People canceling plans because “it’s been crazy,” showing up 10 minutes late to work like it’s nothing; stuff like that really bothers him. It’s a perspective I never thought about before. I would love to hear what you think.
Football is intense and exacting. It's not normal or healthy to live your life as though it's a football game. The ability to live in both worlds requires being able to separate the two. Maybe that's what I meant when I said I needed to be new.