Officials not afraid to use ejection in Week 9

Umpire Fred Bryan informs the Bengals' A.J. Green he is ejected after a Week 9 altercation.

NFL officials ejected five players in Week 9 for fighting. It should have been six. And the one who avoided the ejection ended up suspended. Ejection after several warnings It all started in the Bengals-Jaguars game. A.J. Green (pictured with umpire Fred Bryan above) and Jalen Ramsey had been going at it all

Rule change plugs the hole to drain the clock

At the 2017 NFL owners meeting this past spring, owners voted to approve a rule change proposed by the Competition Committee that disallows teams to intentionally commit multiple fouls during the same down designed to manipulate the clock. Officially, the new rule (12-3-3) reads: A team may not commit multiple fouls

50 Super Bowl calls, Part 1: L to XLI

The Football Zebras staff -- with the assistance of our affiliated forum, Behind the Football Stripes -- has examined the Super Bowls of years past for the work of the officials who, in a given year, attain the honor of the best of the best. While every team competes for

Buccaneers 12-men penalty caught in replay

Week 13: Bengals at Buccaneers (video at 2:25 | replay video) It's as easy as 1 to ... 12. The Buccaneers with 32 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter completed a 21-yard pass to put them in field-goal range. As the Buccaneers took to the line for the play, Bengals coach Marvin

NFL grooming players on officiating ‘fast track’

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

5 observations from Wild Card weekend

After wild card weekend, it always strikes me -- only seven more meaningful football games this year.  In an attempt not to get too maudlin, here are five things that stuck out to me in regard to the officiating this past Wild Card weekend. Jeff Triplette's crew called an awesome game Triplette,

Wild Card quick calls: Chargers at Bengals

AFC Wild Card PlayoffFollow us here for rolling coverage of the calls and rules interpretations of the Chargers-Bengals Wild Card Playoff game from Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati. (If you see continue reading below, click it to see the entire feed.)If you have any questions or comments, use the comments

Referee assignments for Wild Card games: Anderson, Vinovich, Triplette, Hochuli

Football Zebras has confirmed the officiating crews for the Wild Card weekend. Officials are listed with their uniform number, years experience (including this season), the crew each official worked with in the regular season (by the referee’s name), college, and outside occupation. All times are Eastern. Three alternates are assigned to each