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NFL
Report: The Commissioner's View -- Winter 1998
The playoff season is a time
of heightened excitement for NFL fans. After all, when it comes to the
playoffs, you are seeing the NFL at its very best, including the men in
stripes who officiate the games.
Like the players and coaches
who compete to advance into the postseason, only the game officials who are
the most accomplished on the field in the regular season are assigned to
work the playoffs and Super Bowl. These assignments are the culmination of
an intensive year-round program of training and evaluation designed to give
the NFL the highest quality of officiating. Here is how the program works:
Every week during the
season, Jerry Seeman, our senior director of officiating, and his staff of
supervisors spend about 80 hours (5-6 hours per game) reviewing video tapes
of the games. Each official is graded in painstaking detail on every play,
both for his mechanics (was he in the right position?) and his judgment (did
he make the right call?).
The grades are fed into a
computer and rankings are maintained for each of the seven officiating
positions. The 10 highest-rated officials at each position with at least one
previous year of NFL experience qualify for playoff assignments. High-rated
rookie NFL officials can be assigned as playoff alternates or to work on the
field or as an alternate in the Pro Bowl.
Based on these rankings,
Seeman forms his crews for the wild-card, divisional, and conference
championship games. The rationale behind using “all-star” crews, rather than
the highest-rated regular-season crews, is predicated on two factors: 1) the
desire to put the best officials at each position on the field, and 2) the
fact that the mechanics and communication procedures for every position are
the same across all crews.
The Super Bowl assignments
go to the highest-rated officials at each position with at least five years
of NFL experience. The Super Bowl referee must have five years of experience
as an NFL referee. The Super Bowl officials work one playoff game prior to
the Super Bowl, and the grades that determine this coveted assignment
include their performance in the earlier playoff game.
The grading system is also used every offseason to upgrade our officiating
crews. NFL game officials must meet high standards of performance on the
field (at least 90 percent accuracy) to continue working. More than half of
our 112 game officials have been recruited into the league in this decade,
including 11 new referees. Supervisor Al Hynes oversees the scouting of
college officials, and annually helps recruit approximately 15 finalists,
each with at least 10 years of college officiating experience. The NFL
Europe League is an important training ground for these recruits and for
other NFL officials who gain from the experience.
During the offseason, there is also extensive communication within the
league aimed at improving officiating. Several meetings involving owners,
coaches, league office football staff, and referees (the crew chiefs) focus
on the fine points of our rules, how they will be enforced, and the
philosophy behind special points of emphasis for the upcoming season.
In early July, Seeman and
his staff conduct their annual officiating clinic in Dallas. This is a
“training camp” for officials to prepare them for the season. The
officiating crews then visit with teams at their training camps in July and
August to meet with players and coaches, and to work practices and
scrimmages. Training of the officials continues throughout the season with
weekly teaching videos prepared by Seeman. These tapes also are shared with
coaches, players, and the media to improve awareness and understanding.
It is this type of hard
work, much of it behind the scenes, that has resulted in NFL officiating
being recognized throughout sports both for its high quality and the
professionalism of the men on the field. You might keep this in mind as you
watch the playoffs and Super Bowl: When it comes to the game officials, you
are seeing the best of the best. |