NFL Officials Information for Presentation

[Baseball_North]

Hi football officiating experts.

I am doing a ten minute presentation on a sporting topic of my choice and I have chosen officiating football - namely the NFL.

I was wondering if anyone here could please provide me with links to the following pieces. Thanks ahead of time, any help is much appreciated. I figured many users of this board would know some good ones off hand.

1 - Bios/pictures of NFL referees. I want to show how they are part-timers and show some pictures and full-time occupations of some of the NFL officials.

2 - Basic positioning manual - where the 7 officials set up on specific plays.

3 - Overview of penalties & hand signals.

4 - Website showing clips of penalties and calls being made by referees.

Like I said, any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

[The Roamin' Umpire]

Well, the signals were easy to find off of the NFL website:

http://www.nfl.com/features/rulebook/signals/

[gsdownser]

This site should give you a couple of good pictures for your presentation.

http://www.hochuli.net/

[Snake~eyes]

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...ball_officials

[Texas Aggie]

Basic positioning manual - where the 7 officials set up on specific plays.

Here's the basic setup:

Referee: positioned behind the offense, usually toward the sideline nearest the QB's throwing arm. After the snap, he will follow the QB, even on runs.

Umpire: positioned behind the defensive line 5-7 yards back, often favoring the opposite sideline the Referee is favoring. On pass plays, he usually moves toward the line of scrimmage.

Head Linesman: In college mechanics, the HL is positioned on the sideline opposite the press box and leads the official chain crew. In the NFL, I believe the HL and Line Judge switch sidelines at halftime (may be mistaken), and I don't know where exactly he starts. On pass plays, he moves downfield when he reads pass and is primarily responsible for marking the forward spot of the ball on his side of the field.

Line Judge: opposite HL, leads the backup chain crew. Similar mechanics and responsibilities as HL.

Side Judge: in college, starts on opposite sideline of press box, 17-20 or so yards downfield toward the defense's goal line. I'm not sure if the side judge stays with the HL (assuming there's a switch at the half) or even if he's on the same side of the field as the HL in the NFL.

Field Judge: opposite side judge. Similar responsibilities. Note that in recent years (i.e. last 10-12), the Field Judge was the official in the center of the field in the NFL. Now, the back judge is there. I don't know why specifically they made that change, perhaps to line it up with other mechanics. Years ago, in a 4 man crew, there was a R, U, HL, and Field Judge. Now, the 4 man crew (HS and lower) contains a LJ instead of FJ. Mechanics have evolved through the ages as more officials have been put on the field.

Back Judge: center of the field on the defensive side of the ball, 22-25 (or so) yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Initial duties include coordinating the play clock and flagging infractions for that. Other duties include being at the goal line (if possible; not including scrimmage kicks, free kicks, and change of possession plays) when someone scores.

This is a very down and dirty outline. It may not even be totally correct because I've never seen an NFL official's manual. But its a gist of their duties.

[Baseball_North]

Wow thank you VERY much for all this information. This will be very helpful for my presentation. Thanks very much to Texas Aggie for the in depth description.

I have been a baseball umpire for seven years but have never officiated football. It appears to be a very relevant topic to my audience that I will be presenting to. While I know I have a grasp on the basics, this will most definitly help me going into my presentation.

Thanks so much again and any other links or comments would be much appreciated.

Thanks.