Some change-up in the replay booth this offseason has resulted in four new openings in the replay tandem of replay official-replay assistant. Replay officials Jim Lapetina, Darryll Lewis, and Tom Sifferman, the latter two former NFL on-field officials, will not return to the replay booth this season. Replay official Earnie Frantz, also a former NFL on-field official, is also leaving the replay booth but will remain with the NFL in some capacity this season. As a result of these openings, the NFL has promoted four replay assistants to the replay official position, as well as hired four new replay assistants. Replay
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Embed from Getty Images Football Zebras has learned that nine NFL officials will not be returning to the field for the 2020 NFL season. We have previously reported the retirements of umpire Jeff Rice, down judge Mike Spanier, and line judge Byron Boston, as well as the promotion of referee Walt Anderson to the senior vice president of officiating training and development, earlier this year, but we can now confirm five more officials will be leaving the field. With these nine departures, and only six new hires, there will be no swing officials in the 2020 season, the first time no swing
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It's always hard for officials to be away from home on a special holiday. So it was for referee John McDonough and his officiating crew, scheduled to work the Christmas Day divisional playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the visiting Miami Dolphins. McDonough, who officiated Super Bowl IV, and was a AFL and NFL referee from 1960 to 1973, lead a veteran crew that included umpire Frank Sinkovitz, head linesman Leo Miles, line judge Bill Swanson, field judge Bob Baur and back judge Adrian Burk. The NFL had never scheduled a postseason game on Christmas. A few years before the
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According to a report from John Kryk in The Telegram, the NFL will not add an eighth official for the 2020 season. The proposal is for the eighth official to be the sky judge (the position name bandied about at the moment). The idea is for the sky judge to intervene and correct "egregious" judgement errors or rule misapplications. It is unknown if the sky judge would be an official that retired from the field, someone with officiating experience at the college level, or someone that comes up through the replay official pipeline. But, the NFL won't consider the sky judge position this
In this week's Inside the NFL on Showtime, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan can be seen and heard doing what's known as "working the official," that is, alerting the official to potential things an opposing team is doing or might do that is a violation of the rules. This can lead many fans and players alike to proclaim that a given official is in the tank for a given team or coach. That is not the case. Before each game at all levels, the officials will meet with the coaches of both teams. The purpose is to: Make sure all players are
