Does anyone know what happened to the ref that went down in today's Pittsburgh-NYJets game? And did they have a sub ready to go in for him? What's the NFL standard procedure for this?

I know NBA has a sub available for play-off games, do they for regular season games?

Curious Juulie: Why not try the fb forum?

Actually the NBA last year did not have a sub for play-off games and a couple of times they finished the game with two refs. They are talking about changing that for this year.

I did not see the game this PM. What happened?

Rainmaker,
The last comment I heard was that they thought he'd hurt his hamstring. As for a replacement, I don't know. I think they have a replacement ready to go, but not sure about that. Anybody else know?

Juules, the Head Linesman, John McGrath, pulled a hamstring on the TD scoring punt return. Alternate John Schleyer filled in for McGrath.

During the playoffs, the NFL has two alternates at each game. Next weekend, one of the alternates will be a referee. For the Super Bowl, there are three alternates, one of which is an alternate referee.

[Edited by BktBallRef on Jan 15th, 2005 at 11:01 PM]

I looked there, but no one was discussing it. I wasn't sure how often people looked, but I knew people here were also football refs, so I thought I'd ask here.

Tony, what does it mean to say the alternate is a referee? I don't understand.

Just as you have a referee, U1 and U2 on a basketball floor, football officials have designations as well. The referee is the official in the white hat who stands behind the offense, and gives all the signals. NFL officials work the same specific position during every game. They do not work referee one week and umpire the next week.

During the conference championship games and the Super Bowl, one of the alternates will be an official who always works as a referee.

I see. So, if it's the line judge that goes down, and the alternate needs to go in, how does that get juggled?

If there's an alternate referee and a second alternate, the second alternate would assume the LJ's position.

Thanks!

Tony:

You mentioned that next week there would be 2 alternates and 1 will be a referee. Regarding this past weekend, what if the guy that went down this was the referee and neither of the alternates was a referee? Who takes over at that point, and does he wear the "white hat"?

If one of the alternates is not a referee, it's previously decided who will take over as referee. He may be an alternate or he may be an offiical already on the field. He may or may not wear the white hat.

Happened earlier in the regular season - Johnny Grier went down with an injury and Scott Green (I think?) another guy on his crew took over as referee and actually (I believe) finished the season as the referee on that crew. But he had been in line to become a referee at some point, I believe and I think he had been a referee in NFL Europe, so he was prepared to step in.

NFL guys can adjust. There's usually at least a guy or two on a seven-man crew with experience at more than one position, either coming up or in the NFL before they moved to the position they're at now (there are actually at least a couple referees who've moved to other positions, by mutual agreement after some dodginess).

If somebody goes down, they can make it work. If somebody goes down in the playoffs, they have contingency plans.

I wouldn't be surprised if they had RoboRefs ready to pop out of the ground if three guys went down during the Super Bowl for some reason.

Tony are you a White Hat sometimes?
I think Rut is.
I don't own a hat.
mick

Yes mick, sometimes.
But I own a black hat with white piping as well.
In fact, I own several.
Need one?
TH

It looks like I may have to go shopping. ...Either a black hat with white piping or some white shoes. :)
mick

TV will want him to wear the white hat -- so the cameras can find him when he announces the penalties.

*cough*PhilLuckett*cough*

During the Fiesta Bowl, when the R went down, he actually gave his white hat to the alternate.

If I ever get to the point where I'm an alternate official for a big game, I'll spring the extra twelve bucks for my own white hat - just in case. :p

Mark,
You can bet he had his hats. But a delay to get the hat would have affected the script(s).
mick

Perhaps but it's still not always done. I saw a college game earlier this year where the officials did not swap hats. I've never seen an NFL referee go down

Also, he may not "announce" the penalties. Exchanging the wirless mic and box is a little more detailed than just swapping hats.

Not sure what that comment was suppose to mean but Phil Luckett made the decision to move out of the referee position on his own, after the NFL failed to back him up when Jerome Bettis screwed up the coin toss in Detroit.