Officials carrying flags and other equipment

[mikesears]

Originally posted by burch512
This may be a dumb question, but...

I was rewatching the packers/atlanta football game and it looked like only two or three referees were carrying flags.

Do all of the NFL referees carry flags?

Do any of the NFL referees ever call a penalty w/o using a flag?

Also, some of the referees had what looked like black fanny packs on. What are in those bags?

All the officials carry flags. Some of them just tuck them completely out of sight in their pants or stuff them clompletely in their back pockets.

The only time an official in the NFL (from what I can tell) will have to throw something OTHER than a flag is if he has called two fouls on the play.