Football
Plays Not Seen Often Challenge Officials
No one has ever attempted to rank fouls in the order of the difficulty in calling them. However, it’s clear there is pecking order....
Snap, Lapse, Perhaps?
It’s impossible to call a perfect game. Even at the higher levels, where every official is graded in every game, a perfect score doesn’t...
Free But Not Easy
By George Demetriou
Although every game begins with a kickoff, free kicks occur much less frequently than passing or running plays. Add the fact the...
No-Huddle? No Hurry
The key word for officials is accommodation. You can’t deter a team from setting its own pace in a game. Teams have a right...
Literally Lateral
When San Antonio Trinity University used 15 backward passes to score the winning touchdown on the last play of an October 2008 game against...
Ballhandling Makes Your Crew Look Sharp
It was the championship game for the local semi-pro league with a crew of six officials. A pass was intercepted and the down ended...
Before The Flag
No one likes to see a lot of flags thrown. They interrupt the flow of the game and can seem to make it drag...
The Game Of The Century – Notre Dame vs. Michigan State 1966
In a game that featured number one against number two — Notre Dame vs. Michigan State — college football fans were highly anticipating which...
Flying Flag
On Dec. 19, 1999, Jeff Triplette — in his first year as an NFL referee — was working a game in Cleveland when he...
Judgment Necessary at Line of Scrimmage
Judgments are a large part of football officiating. All rules require some degree of judgment. Perhaps the simplest application is determining whether a team has too many players on...
Safety Glasses
The opening kickoff sails over the goalline. The ball is muffed in flight by the receiver and rolls away. The ball is recovered and...
Don’t Get An ‘Oh, S—!’ Reputation
By Jeffrey Stern
I’m guessing you can fill in the blanks in the title of this post. If you haven’t used the word even once...
Coach Communication Done Well
Communication between officials and coaches is extremely important and is an essential element of a properly officiated game. Most coaches identify good communication as...
Passer Gets Extra Attention
Philosophies, rules and mechanics have increasingly stressed the need to officiate through the passer — in other words, pay particular attention to contact on...
Three of the Toughest Judgment Calls
In most seasons, false starts are the most frequently occurring fouls and arguably the foul that requires the second least amount of judgment (calling...
Play Time
By Jeffrey Stern
In an effort to ensure a consistent interval play-to-play and game-to-game, the NFHS Football Rules Committee adopted the 40-second play clock beginning...
Inside Look: 2025 CFP Championship Game Officiating Crew
When Ohio State linebacker Jack Sawyer completed his scoop-and-score after sacking Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers with a little more than two minutes remaining in...
Official/Player Communication Influences Conduct
Trying to manage a football game would be nearly impossible without effective and pointed communication. Although managing players is primarily the responsibility of the coaching staff, officials can facilitate the...
Football Ground Rules
Whether it’s dry or wet, artificial or natural, the surface on which the game is played can have a marked influence on how the game is played and on...
