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

Making the impossible call

Embed from Getty Images   Nothing compares to the speed of a NFL game. While I've never been on the field for one, I worked on the chain gang at a Division I NCAA game one level down from the pros. The speed at that level was dizzying. I can only imagine

Las Vegas Raiders would create an officiating conundrum

Embed from Getty Images   [Editor's note: On March 27, 2017, the NFL owners approved the Raiders' move from Oakland to Las Vegas by a 31-1 vote. (Dolphins were the lone dissenters.) This post was originally published Oct. 28, 2016.] For years the NFL has avoided Las Vegas like the plague. The reputation

Preventative officiating happens every play

There were several tongues wagging in Week 7 when an official advised a player he was in illegal formation.  Many football fans learned the term "preventative officiating," and the debate began whether or not preventative officiating was actually coaching.  Well, preventative officiating happens every game and at every level

Keeping cool when getting an earful

If you can keep your head when all about you   Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you ... If—, Rudyard Kipling Kipling was never a professional or amateur football official, but just about every sports official claims that famous poem as a motto.  Each

Crews need to work together, get it right

  Football is one of the most team-oriented games in the world.  It is a joy to watch a team function on the field as a well-oiled machine as they work to win the game.  The seven-person third team on the field must also function as a well-oiled machine to give