The NFL could soon see more former players become officials. The league is sending 14 former players and one active player to a pair of officiating clinics over the next three days. The first clinic is tomorrow, March 13. It is the league’s Fast Track Clinic, run by the Football Officiating Academy and NFL Player…
McAulay crew handles first dud Super Bowl in 10 years Well, this year’s Super Bowl will not go down as a classic in terms of excitement, but the Seahawks’ defensive performance will be talked about for a long time. Peyton Manning’s future and legacy (rightly or wrongly) will be hot topics for the next few…
I enjoy historic aspects of NFL officiating and as we get ready to zebra watch in Super Bowl XLVIII here are some interesting nuggets regarding officiating in the Super Bowl. Field judge Scott Steenson sets the record for most years between return trips. Steenson worked Super Bowl XXXI, and makes his return 17 years later.…
Terry McAulay will lead a crew of excellent and distinguished officials in this year’s Super Bowl. This will be his third Super Bowl (XXXIX, XLIII), umpire Carl Paganelli’s fourth (XXXIX, XLI, XLVI), and field judge Scott Steenson’s second (XXXI). Even though it will be the first Super Bowl for the other four officials, their experience…
Now that the divisional playoff referee assignments have been determined by Football Zebras, we can now look at the potential crew chief for the Super Bowl. The NFL assigns its Super Bowl officiating staff to a second-round game to break up the gap between their Week 17 assignment and the big game. This means that…
In an attempt to narrow down potential assignments, Football Zebras has learned from multiple sources that last year’s Super Bowl referee, Jerome Boger, did not receive a playoff assignment this season. Also not receiving an assignment are Mike Carey and John Parry. Missing the playoffs the year following a Super Bowl assignment is not unprecedented.…
Clete Blakeman, Carl Cheffers, Terry McAulay, and Pete Morelli are the referees in the Divisional Playoffs.
Football Zebras commentary Week 17 is upon us, meaning that the final evaluations for officials vying for playoff positions are being determined. Officials will not be informed of the Wild Card Playoff assignments until the middle of the upcoming week. The later playoff rounds will then be rolled out in the succeeding week or two.…
Dean Blandino, vice president of officiating at the NFL, has released his weekly tape for the media on rules clarifications (140 MB download). Here are the items under discussion: During the final minute of the second quarter of the Seahawks-Cardinals game, the discussion of a 10-second runoff came up twice. The first was properly applied…
Week 2 of the 2013 NFL season is in the books and, as usual, former NFL vice president for officiating and current FOX Sports officiating analyst Mike Pereira had many calls to break down. Pereira said that Bill Leavy’s crew was correct is calling the Buccaneers’ Adrian Clayborn and Dashon Goldson for unnecessary roughness fouls…