R T. McAulay
U C. Paganelli
HL G. Slaughter
LJ M. Steinkerchner
FJ T. Sifferman
SJ R. Patterson
BJ T. Steratore

It'd be a coup for MacCauley after his crew quit him last season.

We'll see I guess.... it's just a prediction, that's all.

Seems to be the consensus!

Terry McAulay
Carl Paganelli
Gary Slaughter
Mark Steinkerchner
Tom Sifferman
Rick Patterson
Tony Steratore

alts
Ed Hochuli
Garth DeFelice
Larry Rose

I like McAulay (sp????).

Ed as the Alt? Who knew?

Sifferman again? Wasn't he on Ed's crew? Is he to replace a new official of Terry's crew?

Only Steinkerchner, Patterson, and Steratore are on McAulay's regular crew. The U, HL, and FJ are from three different crews. Possibly those officials from McAulay's crew weren't eligible.

What are the eligibility rules?

I think that there are certain officials who they don't let work certain team's games for some reason.

I know they don't let rookies work playoff games but what is the first year an official can work a playoff game.

The local NFL official works on Mike Carrey's crew but wasn't working the playoff game that Carrey got. This is his third year at HL.

My understanding is that you aren't eligible for a playoff game until after 5 years in the league.

REPLY: It looks like the NFL is pretty much rewriting its policies on the fly. Or maybe they were rewritten for this season and we weren't privy to them. In the past, the only officials who worked <u>multiple</u> playoff games were those who were scheduled to work the Super Bowl. And they typically came out of the Divisional playoff round. Last year, Hochuli's crew came out of the Wild Card Round. And this season, all officials who worked the Conference Championships last weekend had already worked another playoff game--either the wild cards or the divisional rounds. That's new! And we can assume that the SB officials have also worked before in the last few weeks.

In the past, rookies were not allowed to work the playoffs at all. Second year guys were permitted. In order to work the Super Bowl, officials needed to be in the league for five years with the further stipulation that the Super Bowl referee needed to have five years at that position. Many of these policies are/were legacies from the days of mixed crews for the playoffs. Now that they've gone to the crew concept, the policies are probably being revisited and updated.

What happened? Just curious...

As for officials working the playoffs, I believe I read that an official cannot work the playoffs until his 2nd year, and can't work the Super Bowl until his 5th year at his given position. I could be totally wrong on that, and if you are more "in the know" than I am, please correct me.

The other officials on MacAuley's crew were so enamored with him last year that they all sent a letter to the league office requesting to be re-assigned.

From what I hear, he doesn't exactly stick up for his guys if they get a downgrade from the league office. That and a few other items made his guys want out.

REPLY: PSU213... In order to work the Super Bowl, officials needed to be in the league for five years with no stipulation on time in position. Only the Super Bowl <u>referee</u> needed five years tenure at his position. I don't know if this policy might have changed.

And you are correct that a second year guy can work the playoffs, with the obvious exception of the SB.

Absolutely true. From '94 until '03, the only crew to work two games was the SB crew.


Actually last year, the two crews that worked the conference championships, Coleman and Kukar also worked a wild card game. Hoculi work the Philly-Green Bay divisional game and the SB.

This year, Carollo is the only R to work 2 games so far, a divisional and a conference championship. But the only official on both of those crews was the LJ. McAulay worked a divisional.

http://members.tripod.com/refereestats/playoffArc.htm

http://members.tripod.com/refereestats/05playoffs.htm

Doesn't seem to be much of a pattern.

It is not just 5 years in the league; it is 5 years at a position. This is the reason many guys do not make the playoffs on specific crews. Some of those individuals might have switched positions and have been in the league longer than 5 years.

Now that is what I have been told.

Peace

Not true. Only the referee has to have been in his present position for 5 years. Other officials simply have to have 5 years experience.

If what you said was true, the NFL wouldn't be able to get anyone to change positions. Change positions and wait 5 more years for a playoff game? Nope, I don't think so.