sympathize with the pitiful NFL official . He works tirelessly all year long under the doubting ticker of fanatical lover , the intense pressure of nervous conference official , and the stern glare of telecasting camera . He lastly clear a trip to the postseason with his A+ work and , ina fraction of a second in front of trillion across the nation … he ’s a bum . A total bum who cost a squad the plot and tot to the NFL ’s oft - trembling repute .
Who in their right mind , really , would want to be an NFL functionary ?
With all the ballyhoo that fence theSuper Bowl — this year it ’s Super Bowl LIII , in Atlanta on Feb. 3 — it ’s wanton sometimes to dismiss the leach human beings on the flying field . But just like the instrumentalist for the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams , who earned the right hand to be at this yr ’s Big Game , the NFL official look at the Super Bowl as the pinnacle of their profession .
But , boy , getting there can be absolutely no fun at all .
What It Takes to be a Super Bowl Zebra
First of all , we should explain the honorable mention of " men " when it come to function in the NFL : The Super Bowl always has been called by valet . All man . For every one of the LII game . And it will be again in 2019 .
That , though , could change in the near future . That ’s becausefor the first time in NFL chronicle , a cleaning woman , Sarah Thomas , officiated a 2019 NFL playoff plot . Thomas was the down judge during the divisional - round game between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Chargers . She is the league ’s first full - time female official .
But Thomas is not eligible to officiate the Super Bowl yet because of the first requirement that the NFL has for Super Bowl officials ( and it has nothing to do with gender ) . A Big Game official has to have at least five geezerhood of experience . Thomas just finish her 4th .
Super Bowl officials — here are this year ’s — have to have an on - field duty assignment in three of the late five postseasons , too , or call a group discussion championship ( that ’s the step just under the Super Bowl ) . Thomas is run to have to work on that next time of year ; she was n’t pick to be on one of this year’stwo conference title work party .
Most importantly , all functionary for the Super Bowl — seven of them , not counting alternate and those in thereplay booth — have to be among the good at what they do , as determined by the NFL ’s rather stringent internal order arrangement . ( Thomas was in 2018 , as shown by her divisional - beat playoff naming . )
Intangibles come into play , too , when the NFL ’s fourth-year frailty president of officiating , Alberto Riveron , gets together with others in the league business office to shape an prescribed functionary roster for the postseason .
" What they will do , because it ’s so close [ among the top officials ] , they will actually bump somebody up who has n’t been to a Super Bowl and move them up into the slot , " says Ben Austro , the laminitis and editor in chief of the football game officiating sitefootballzebras.com . This class ’s plot in Atlanta will feature three officials raw to the Big Game .
" It ’s not stringently on grades . They do have some ability to add some immanent elements , " Austro adds . " And that also includes examining an functionary for leading quality ; making certain they ’re maintaining pace of game , stimulate sure they ’re decisive in their shout , all these little intangibles that they can kind of add up and say , ' You know what , they may not have been the top official , but we see these other quality that make him — or her — a Super Bowl official . So we ’re going to labour this person up . ' "
Making the Grade
That first step , incur dependable review , is undoubtedly the toughest hurdle to overtake . In such a eminent - visibility mutation , cover so nearly by the media and dissected so exhaustively by lover , NFL officials are under a constant , persistent microscope . Errors — with that much scrutiny , some always crop up up in the postseason — can becareer - ending and league - shake up .
Nobody , though , look at NFL officials — for the track record , the term " reviewer " applies only to the highest - profilefootballofficial ; the others are the umpire , line of reasoning jurist , down judge , field judge , side judge and back justice — more closely than the league itself .
A group of prescribed supervisors review every turn of every NFL plot — almost 40,000 plays in 2017 — and grades every one of the 124 NFL officials on each swordplay . The reviewer try the functionary not only on what calls they make , but also on those that they drop . The reviewers also attend at whether the official did their jobs in the right way ; whether each was in the proper place at the proper time looking at the right part of the play ( officials all have specific province on each romp ) .
A distinctive functionary , the NFL say , is evaluated on the base of some 2,100 plays over the path of a steady time of year .
" They may count at some routine play … 20 time . If there ’s something a footling more mired , it may be more . So it ’s a very meticulous inspection of every single free rein and every [ camera ] feed , " Austro says . " You get a stain down if they see something improper , a subtraction - one , and if they agree , it ’s a positive - one . The pluses and minuses are all tallied up . "
At the end of the year , the official are stuck into three tiers . Those in the bottom third are in danger of lose their jobs . The center tier is generally safe . The top tier , where the best of the best reside and the deviation between those in the striped shirt is razor - slight , is where the conference get its postseason and Super Bowl officials .
But , yes , even the skillful of the bestmake mistakes .
Overall , despite hebdomadary fan call over controversies — Was his knee down ? Did he bobble the catch ? Was that pass interference ? Did he cross the goal product line ? — NFL officials are as close to perfect as anyone can reasonably expect .
" in the main , although they never came out with an exact number , it ’s generally believed to be better than 98 percentage or above in accuracy evaluation , " Austro pronounce , " which is phenomenal when you compare it to anything else in sports . "
