Mechanics

I’m recycling a Ready for Play article from 2024. We’ve had a few penalty enforcement issues in the first few weeks of the season, so this is a good time to remind…

In our last Ready for Play article, we introduced the ‘Rule of Two’—a guideline for how officials should signal. This article provides a few best practices for referee signals. When blowing the…

We use signals to communicate with our crewmates on the field. We use signals to communicate to game clock and play clock operators. And we use signals to show our judgment during…

With only five sets of eyeballs looking at 22 players on the field, we can’t give the same attention to every matchup. That’s why looking at the flow of colors helps us…

In high school football, we work with either a 25-second or 40-second play clock. Late in a half, when the game clock is winding down, coaches will sometimes ask the referee to…

Braveheart, with Mel Gibson as William Wallace, is one of my favorite movies. One of the most gripping scenes comes when the English and Scottish forces sprint toward each other and collide…

While on active duty in the Air Force, I served two years at Yongsan Army Garrison in Seoul, South Korea, as the Joint Staff’s Theater Missile Defense Officer. One of the radars…

I officiated basketball for 4 years starting in 2011. It’s a different ball and a different surface—but I’ve found a lot of basketball officiating principles apply to football. There are numerous examples;…