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Football Zebras is looking for a few good writers to join our team. We need knowledgeable contributors to help us with some of the tasks to maintain this site as a distinguished and trusted source of rules interpretation and officiating news. These tasks include: post mid-week officiating news, when available maintain reference

A celebration of my mentor

October 10, 1976, will always stand out in my mind. It was the opening of Giants Stadium and the start of a long run of bonding experiences with my dad, Ben Sr. We walked out of the passageway of the upper deck for the first time, we lurched back, feeling

Happy 70th birthday to former NFL referee Pete Morelli

Embed from Getty Images Happy 70th birthday to retired NFL field judge and referee Pete Morelli. The 22-year official was born November 18, 1951. Morelli worked 16 postseason games, which included 7 Wild Card Playoffs, 6 Divisional Playoffs, 2 Conference Championships, and Super Bowl XXXVI, as the field judge on referee Bernie Kukar’s crew. In

New book shows officiating is ‘A Tough Job Made Harder’

Review by Mark Schultz If you've followed Football Zebras for any length of time, you know that we break down football officiating and (hopefully) show you how difficult calling a football game is. Between interpreting complicated rules, avoiding getting run over by people twice their size, tuning out 50,000 people chanting

Happy birthday, Ed Hochuli!

On this Christmas Day, 2020, we wish former NFL referee Ed Hochuli a happy 70th birthday. Hochuli was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Christmas Day, 1950. His family moved to Arizona when he was eight, and he has called Arizona home ever since. In high school, Hochuli played football, basketball, wrestling and

Washington retires team name that was once a factor in officiating assignments

http://gty.im/843486860 The NFL's Washington franchise has officially retired their team name, which will take effect when a new team name is decided. In use for 87 seasons, the name controversy also had a small effect on which officials worked which games. https://twitter.com/Redskins/status/1282661063943651328 Referee Mike Carey took issue with the team and requested to