On Friday November 6, 2010 Bob Waggoner visited the Perry Field House to discuss his experience officiating in the NFL. In the beginning of the presentation Waggoner spoke briefly about his career background and how he ended officiating in the NFL. Waggoner’s first career was a probation officer then moved into high school officiating, which lead him to college BSC conference, and now into the NFL. Waggoner explained his experience working in the NFL as a “humbling and challenging” career/experience. As he expressed some of the job requirements, one was able to understand by what he meant when saying the job was humbling and challenging. “Try working in a career where every time you work you are being video recorded then at the end of your shift your boss critiques your work day.” Waggoner went through the aspects of how officials are judged in their career which humbles and challenges the officials. It seems to me that the officials are just doing their job yet their job is the dirty work which no one likes. For example Waggoner explained that they get a lot of crap put on their shoulders from the coaches, players, fans, and then their bosses. Waggoner also explained how the NFL officials are graded and measured when being critiqued. Officials are graded on how well they call a play and are measured by the 1.4% of their play calling, not the 9.8%. In other words, officials are not getting looked at what they called right but what they missed and called wrong. He noted that on average there are only 3 mistakes called during a game which does not give room for many mistakes. Not only are they graded at how they call the plays but the officials are also measured on how they interact with the players, coaches, and other officials. This officiating stuff does not seem as easy as it looks having to make the right calls and pleasing every one yet being fair I thought to myself.
Another aspect I did not realized in the life of an official is that they have just as busy schedules as coaches and players. Officials work week days in the office and travel for games on the weekend. So they are pretty much working 24/7. Waggoner mentioned that one game caused him to miss his daughter’s high school graduation. Not only is officiating a hard job, but they are defiantly held to a high standard from but Waggoner briefly spoke on. He said some additional comments that officials are required to meet are one a year background checks, physicals, stress test, and psychological tests. Overall I enjoyed having Bob Waggoner come speak at the Perry Field House. After his presentation I certainly left that day having a greater respect for officials and what they are required to do to even be on the field. I think that officiating may be one of the highest standard jobs out there because everyone is watching you while working so there is not room for slacking.
