Stripes—Life as a Zebra

The goal is training us to call fouls that truly affect the game and be more accurate with judgment calls. The improved video critiques we now receive have helped dramatically in this area. The advent of telestrators and the ability to zero in on particular players and aspects of a play facilitate our understanding of what we did well and might do differently to improve. Those of us who officiate football are always seeking ways to improve our performance, and technological advances have given us an excellent means of doing so. Specifically, I refer to improvements in the taping and evaluation of game film on which our performance each Saturday is graded.

Officials in most Division I-A conferences are evaluated on every play of every game. In mine, the Big 12, the schools send our supervisor of officials a copy of every game film we officiate, including sideline and end zone shots of each play. The supervisor then assigns it to an evaluator, who spends up to eight hours reviewing each tape.

After each game, each official records a description of each foul he called on a form. These reports and those of the on-site observer are given to the reviewer, who decides if the call was correct. If the game was televised, the reviewer may also consult the TV tape.

A correct call merits a grade of 6 - 7 if it was outstanding; a "marginal" call - technically accurate but "picky" - earns a 5; while an incorrect call gets a 3 or 2. If the evaluator spots a foul that should have been called but wasn't, a 4 is assigned. "No-calls" earn a higher mark than an incorrect call on the theory that it is better not to throw a flag than to throw one erroneously.

After the evaluator finishes reviewing the tapes, he and the supervisor discuss problems revealed by the films and often re-examine them together.

Judgment calls - for example, was the ball caught or fumbled? did the runner score? - are also graded. This is an area in which technology has really helped improve the process. Whether or not an evaluator agrees with an official's call often depends upon the camera angle. The advent of stop-action and multi-angle shots enables evaluators to have several angles from which to decide. For example, determining if a runner's knee was down before the ball came loose or if a defender held a receiver's arm to prevent him from catching a pass.

Another vital aspect in which technology has improved the officials evaluation process is the enhanced clarity of video and the introduction of digital editing. Just a few years ago game film and video was often so fuzzy it was useless. Giving our evaluators a clear look at our work is important, because at season's end our grades are combined and whether or not we get a bowl game - or even remain in the league - depends on our overall percentage of accuracy.

After each game tape is graded, the correct and incorrect calls are combined onto a tape of about 20 minutes, which is provided to the crew referee. The editing and condensing of the evaluation tape is a much easier and less-time consuming process today because of the digitizing of the game tape. The supervisor does a voiceover on each tape, with an eye toward achieving consistency among officials in terms of what he wants called and how we can improve individual and crew mechanics in order to consistently be in better position to make calls. The goal is training us to call fouls that truly affect the game and be more accurate with judgment calls. The improved video critiques we now receive have helped dramatically in this area. The advent of telestrators and the ability to zero in on particular players and aspects of a play facilitate our understanding of what we did well and might do differently to improve.

Every Friday night before a gameday, each crew (seven officials) reviews its own as well as other crews' films from the week before. Often we review some plays several times and stop to discuss them in depth. We also re-review films during the off-season, while attending our spring and summer clinics, and during the August two-a-days we work at the schools. This allows us to share our officiating philosophy with the coaches and players to ensure that everyone is on the same page. The supervisor and referees also conduct weekly conference calls during which, among other things, strong or weak points revealed in the previous week's films are discussed.

In addition, sometimes the conference distributes tapes to the schools on taunting, pass interference, holding, etc. to further the league's instructional goals. Again, digital editing has allowed the league office more time and flexibility in this production effort.

When I started officiating at the Division I-A level in 1987, we did not even have film critiques. If the supervisor did not call on Monday morning with a coach's complaint, we assumed everything was OK. Often, however, the result was great inconsistency in terms of how we interpreted the rules. Being human, we will never achieve on-field perfection, but technology is rapidly getting us to the point where we understand what should be called and how we can get in better position to make the calls. This allows us to function better as a crew, and gives coaches and players a better understanding of what to expect from us come gametime. Jon Bible has been a football official for 30 years including stints in the Big 12 and Southwest Conferences as well as three years in the NFL. He has worked the Big 12 Championship Game and the 1993 Sugar Bowl national championship game. Bible has also umpired college baseball for 26 years, serving as the National Coordinator of NCAA Umpires from 1989-96 and working seven College World Series.