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

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

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

Referee assignments, preseason week 1

The offseason has finally come to an end, and the first week of the NFL preseason is here. Four new white hats-- Alex Kemp, Shawn Hochuli, Shawn Smith, and Clay Martin -- will be taking the field with their new crews this week. Martin is the only one of the four with