This story relates to “Youth Games on Sundays Led to Super Bowl Sundays,” which appears on page 7 of Officiating Youth Football 2007-08

Markbreit's Remarkable Career:
Small Town to the Super Bowl

When the 1998 NFL football season ended, Jerry Markbreit knew it was time to retire. He just didn’t know what that was going to mean.

“The place where I feel the most comfortable in my life is on a football field, dressed in that zebra outfit,” Markbreit says. “When that ends, that comfortable place will be gone because I don’t feel that comfortable in real life.”

Strange words from the native of Skokie, Ill., who spent the better part of  20 years making America feel comfortable as they watched him click on the referee’s microphone and explain penalty after penalty in his fatherly way. It is that quality that helped make Markbreit a minor celebrity and prompted people on the street to stop him as if he were an old friend — even if they sometimes can’t quite remember how they know him.

He built his reputation by being the right referee doing the right things in the right games at the right time. On the field he’s in the spotlight, a leader. He does his job with measured control, ease and confidence. Off the field he’s uncomfortable with his celebrity.

Through four Super Bowls and one incredible career, Markbreit never forgot where he came from. “I loved the celebrity while I was officiating, but it didn’t make my life,” Markbreit said. “In many ways it’s very embarrassing to have people constantly saying, ‘What game are you on this week?’ and ‘How are the Bears going to do?’ It would be nice to just hear, ‘Hi Jerry. How are you?’ I don’t like to broadcast my accomplishments. I just like to be Jerry Markbreit, Skokie resident, and let my actions speak for themselves.”

The small office in Markbreit’s house is filled to capacity by a desk and a filing cabinet and little else, except for the dozens of framed photographs covering the walls.

The first thing you notice about the photographs is the singular theme that runs through them. They tell the tale of Markbreit’s officiating life. There are images of Markbreit working games in the NFL, the Big 10 and high school, pictures of the many crews he’s been associated with and the many friends he’s made in the officiating community. One thing you don’t see, though, is any photo of players or coaches. There are no autographs, no game balls, no memorabilia of any kind other than officials and the act of officiating.

Markbreit was born to his role. He began his officiating career after failing as a player at the University of Illinois, where he played on the freshman squad. He signed up to referee the intramural program and figured his life in athletics was over after graduation, but Dame Fate would not allow it. Markbreit’s high school coach, Ellie Hasan, invited his former pupil to attend a local officials association meeting before the 1956 season. Markbreit attended the meetings, studied the rulebook and asked questions. He bought a complete uniform, put it in a duffel bag that he stored in his car and waited for the phone to ring. It never did.

Frustrated, Markbreit gave up. The next summer, Hasan called to find out why Markbreit hadn’t attended the first association meeting. “I didn’t work a single game last year,” Markbreit complained. Hasan shot back, “You didn’t know anything and you would have made a lot of mistakes.” Properly chastened, Markbreit decided to stick it out and before long was working junior varsity games in the Chicago area, even waiting around in his car after games hoping there might be a vacant spot on the varsity crew.

As Markbreit’s schedule and reputation grew, so did his desire to work bigger games. In 1965 he broke into the Big 10. Two years later, in 1967, he was offered a job in the pros but turned it down to pursue what he really wanted: the referee position. The NFL came calling again in 1976 and that time Markbreit accepted. His earlier decision paid off when, after one season in the pros, Markbreit took over his own crew.

“My job as referee has always been to get this group together so that they mutually respect and like each other,” says Markbreit. “When you’re the referee on a crew, you’re truly the leader of that crew. And the men on that crew expect you to be the leader and expect you to field all the problems, anything that comes up during the season or with any of the men on the crew. You’ve got to get involved in order to keep the crew together.”

Markbreit’s leadership goes beyond his own crew. His reputation and longevity in the NFL afforded him an elder statesman status that only a few others have achieved. Former crewmates and other officiating friends often call him to discuss not only officiating, but also other crucial elements of their lives. They call him seeking advice and wisdom, or simply to have someone listen. His relationships transcend his official capacity and his role tends to become something more akin to brother or father.

But Markbreit characteristically downplays the respect his peers have afforded him. “I’m sure they go to other veteran officials as well. It’s not just me,” he says. “I have a very good relationship with almost all of the men who have worked with me over the years. They call me a lot and we talk about certain things, and it makes me feel good to know they still regard my opinions even though they’re not on my crew anymore.”

Howard Wertz mentored Markbreit in the Big 10. “ He taught me how to speak, he taught me how to address players and he taught me how to signal,” remembers Markbreit. “He did all those things, and then he told me, ‘The only thing you can give back to officiating is what I’m doing for you. Never forget it. You can take from officiating throughout your whole career and never give anything back and nobody will know the difference. But if you give back by helping other people the way I’m helping you, you’ll get much more pleasure out of what you’re doing, because you’ll see people in later years doing those same things.’”

Markbreit doesn’t simply recite that lesson, he lives it. Every year young officials come to him for advice or to have him look at one of their game tapes and Markbreit does everything he can to help. “There’s a young referee who was going to come to one of the clinics that I was at. He had a dilemma and didn’t know what to do,” says Markbreit. “He had a chance to work a spring game at one of the universities in the Atlantic Coast Conference or come to the clinic. I advised him to work the spring game because the conference people would get a chance to see him. As a result, he was taken into the conference and got a schedule. He wrote me a letter saying he was so happy I had contacted him and given that advice. He sent me one of his tapes that I looked at and now we correspond.” That story is emblematic of Markbreit, who estimates he advises 10 such officials a year.

“I was watching a couple of our guys earlier this year making certain signals and they were my signals,” he says with a touch of uncharacteristic pride. “They may not know they’re my signals, but I was the one who came up with those signals. It made me feel good.”