Six wild card games in three days, including a triple header one day! Whew! Six crews, 42 on field officials, and lots of calls. Here are a few thoughts about the weekend. 1. Mistakes happen no matter the experience The Raiders-Bengals game featured an erroneous whistle (formerly called an inadvertent whistle). While
Follow-up
Breaking down Wild Card assignments by the numbers
A shocking 3 officials miss all or parts of 3 games in Week 17
In an unprecedented situation, three NFL officiating crews worked all or part of three games with six-person crews. To the best of our memories, we cannot recall two crews working an official down on one day, let alone three. Hochuli crew starts with six Down judge Ed Camp did not start Giants-Bears
2 unusual penalties on the same play: illegal hideout and sideline interference
Players are adapting to the taunting point of emphasis faster than expected
For 2021, the NFL Competition Committee issued a point of emphasis directing the officials to strictly flag a player for unsportsmanlike conduct if they taunt an opponent, through words and actions that disrespect or demean. At the time I predicted that players and coaches would adapt to the new emphasis point after
Instant replay mistake in AFC Championship Game confirmed
Sources tell Football Zebras that the NFL has internally acknowledged that replay incorrectly reviewed whether or not Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen stepped out of bounds before he threw a pass in Sunday's AFC Championship Game. https://streamable.com/c7ex0s Referee Bill Vinovich ruled that Allen had stepped out of bounds before he threw the
5 observations from championship weekend, 2020
We've made it all the way through the conference championships, and here are my officiating impressions from the weekend. 1. Umpire hustle https://streamable.com/38ntps Both Barry Anderson and Ramon George showed lots of hustle this weekend. It is hard to see in snippets of them running through the frame, but experienced zebra-watchers could tell
5 officiating observations from the divisional playoffs
The divisional playoff weekend featured two ho-hum games on Saturday and two intense games on Sunday. No matter the game, all four crews did a very nice job. Here are some officiating observations from the divisional weekend. 1. Great to see Clay Martin Martin was hospitalized a few weeks ago after going on
