NFL Conference Championship Officials

[rulesmaven]

Originally Posted by ljudge

I don't understand how he would get "priority" though as they use all-star crews as rulesmaven states. He still has to be the best out of the 16 or 17 referees they have.

I'm not suggesting that if he has a bad year he'll get the game. But what I've heard is that he made it clear that to the extent he was up for it this year, he'd prefer next. (You cannot officiate two superbowls in a row.)

The fact that he's officiated 17 post-season games in 15 years and his crew was near the top this year in ratings, but he did not do any post-season games this year I think lends some support to the rumor. I think it's unlikely that his crew was not in the top 9 this year, yet he's not in the playoffs.

I'm pretty sure that for the last 3 games, it's not necessarily 1 that gets the SB and 2 and 3 that get the championship games. I just think you need to be top 3, and then not disqualified by one of the other rules (e.g., must have more than 4 years experience, or more than 5 unless you've done a championship game, must have not done the game the last year, etc.)

Bottom line is that if he's in the top 5 or 6 next year at his position, I will take even money that he will end up with the game by hook or crook.