The extent of the adjustments to the usual officiating lineups is not officially known. It is clear, however, that Friday’s national ground stoppage will result in significant changes to the usual groupings of officiating crews.
On Saturday morning, the NFL announced that three non-referees will serve as referees for four games in Week 10, with one of them – Don Willard – working as a referee for the 1 p.m. ET game between the Dolphins and Colts before heading to Cincinnati for Sunday night’s Steelers-Bengals game.
Via Ben Austro of FootballZebras.com, three referees will work in other roles on Sunday.
Referee Carl Cheffers and referee Alex Kemp will work as referees. Referee Shawn Hochuli (pictured) will work as back judge.
The reconfiguration results from the NFL’s decision to assign officials to games within driving distance of their homes.
Austro also notes that those responsible for replays of all Sunday games will work from NFL headquarters. They were in Detroit on Friday for an all-day in-person workout. Instead of dispersing to the different gaming locations, they all went to New York.
This sets the stage for a potentially strange day, with any errors inevitably blamed on the NFL’s inability to get the officials where they needed to be. If it works, though, it could prompt the NFL to reconsider the overall staffing plan, if there’s a way to do it that cuts expenses.
I think that’s an ironic remark. I hope this is an ironic remark.
Either way, Sunday could prove interesting. The players and coaches have gotten to where they are supposed to be. Officials have not done so, and the cards have been significantly reshuffled to ensure that every game will be properly staffed.
Gn sports
