Embed from Getty Images In his final media tape of the preseason, senior vice president of officiating Al Riveron highlighted a variety of plays to discuss before entering the regular season. These plays are summarized below: Avoiding landing on the quarterback In prior weeks, Riveron has discussed a new point of emphasis for
2018 Preseason
Officiating video: Avoiding landing on the quarterback with full body weight will keep flags in pockets
Embed from Getty Images With a very quick turnaround time, senior vice president of officiating Al Riveron has produced another video of notable calls from the weekend, in preparation for the teams entering their final preseason game this Thursday (video below). While most of the calls were summarized in our post
Referee assignments, preseason week 4
Embed from Getty Images The 2018 NFL preseason concludes this week with all games on Thursday that all kick off around 7:00 in each stadium's local time. Umpire Barry Anderson and field judge Brad Rogers will be trying out for the referee position to finalize the four total tryouts for this season.
Officiating video: Receivers can still be defenseless even after the catch process is over
http://gty.im/1024193932 In his recent installment of the weekly officiating video, senior vice president of officiating Al Riveron explained numerous calls from the second week of preseason games, including defenseless receivers, the new kickoff rules, and the new and ever-popular lowering the head to initiate contact foul (video below). Holding a defender into the quarterback In
Referee assignments, preseason week 3
The preseason is entering its third week and there will be no special experiments with the crews this week. The development program has closed so that those officials can return to their respective college conferences. All times below are Eastern. Live games on NFL Network will only be telecast on local
Preseason flags are not ‘the end of football as we know it’
The waning days of summer are too precious to waste on analyzing preseason football. But, here we are with an unprecedented collection of major rule changes and points of emphasis. And we are going to single out one call from the second full week of preseason. Vikings linebacker Antwione Williams easily
Referee assignments, preseason week 2
Embed from Getty Images In the second week of the preseason, the officiating department will begin experimenting with development program officials and the continued interleague agreement with Canadian Football League officials. This week will also feature two new white-hat tryouts, as side judges Scott Novak, pictured above, and Adrian Hill will
Shamarko Thomas ejected on helmet hit, first DQ of live-ball action since 2009
Colts safety Shamarko Thomas became the unwitting test case for the new helmet rule, as he was ejected in the fourth quarter of the first preseason game against the Seahawks. The helmet-to-helmet contact foul is the first ejection of the 2018 season. Thomas's hit is in a rare category. Football Zebras and
No eight-person crew experiments this preseason
For the past several preseasons, the NFL has experimented with eight-person crews. Football Zebras has learned that experiment is on hold this year. Eight-person crews started in the NCAA. In college, the eighth official is the center judge, who lines up in the offensive backfield with the referee. NCAA umpires stay in their