Behind the NFL Scenes
Monday, November 8th, 2010 | Assignments for TLEP 4830
On Friday November 5th I went to a presentation at the Perry Field House titled Behind the NFL Scenes with Robert Waggoner. Robert Waggoner has been an NFL Official for 15 years now, before then he was in the MAC conference officiating football games as well as lacrosse. He was asked to come to BGSU to speak about the importance of decision making skills, but with that he brought a vast amount of amazing stories.
As someone who does not pay too much attention to the game of football I was intrigued by the speaker because I enjoy learning about the ‘behind the scenes’ views of just about anything. You never hear official’s thoughts and views on TV, only the calls they made that nobody else agrees with. I found it interesting that Mr. Waggoner said that many people feel that he, and other officials ruin the game, he views it as he makes the game run. I totally agree with his opinion because as he said without them, there would be fighting and the game would be at a standstill. As an official you must be quick in your thoughts and you must make the correct call, or you will hear about it for a long time to come. Unfortunately, nobody is perfect, and nobody can make the right calls all the time, so it is unfortunate to be in the spotlight when it occurs. For Mr. Waggoner he has been a part of two of the most controversial calls to have occurred this season. After one of calls, I was shocked to learn that he and others involved in the call, received death threats not only against themselves against their families as well. When he stated that all I could think was, it is just a game! It is amazing to see how far people will go in situations that do not even have to deal with life or death.
Other aspects of his speech that I thought were interesting were the regulations for commercial time during a game and that many of the officials have second jobs. When it came to the commercials I guess I was shocked to learn that there are specific regulations for it i.e. 19 commercials for each game, 20 if there is an injury and 21 if it is a nationally broadcast game. It is just another aspect of the game that you can now see is run by the media. When I found out about the officials having second jobs I was amazed at the possibility of even holding a job, such a teacher, when there is so much traveling and time involved in being an NFL Official. It really makes me wonder what the average salary is for an official because Mr. Waggoner seemed to think you could make a living off of it, depending on what style you would like to live. I definitely am glad I went to the presentation, I gained a lot of knowledge about how the NFL is run and what all it takes to be an official. I also learned about the importance of decision making and how one little call or decision can really turn your life around.