A few weeks ago I attended a speech given by an NFL Official named Bob Waggoner. I’m not a huge football fan myself (as in, I’ve never actually watched a game), so I didn’t know quite what to expect. I actually thought that all the guys on the field where the “referees” and an official was one of the NFL’s lawyers or something. So, while I learned more about football than I ever have in my life, I also learned quite a bit about what it takes to start a career in the NFL and the certain person it takes to do the job.
Bob has been an official for 14 years now and was a probation officer before that. I had no idea that the background of officials was so diverse. Some were lawyers, others were officials from other sports, and some others were teachers. I thought teachers was sort of random at first, but considering the amount of high school coaches that are involved in with their schools sports I guess not. The work week of an official is pretty rough, they often work six days a week during the season. I couldn’t believe that some people were able to be an official and keep a normal day job. Bob said “it just depends on the life style you want to live,” which I think meant “how much money do you want”. Still, all the money in the world is worthless if you don’t have time to spend it. Bob himself reminded me a lot of a judge; very neutral and collected yet still with an unspoken authority. I could tell though that he very much enjoyed the thrill of the game. He started with a montage of clips of coaches exchanging words with officials and the whole time Bob was smiling against the wall of the room. He had to have seen that video a hundred times yet he still loves it. Even the position of official (if that’s the correct term) that he wanted most was be next to coaches because simply that’s where the action is. I understood the amount of stress that is put on these officials. He is essentially graded by the teams, the media, and the fans, and expected to be perfect. I like how he acknowledged that there is an average of three mistakes per game, yet they are still accurate 98.6% of the time.
Ultimately I learned that being an NFL official is not for me, but Bob was pretty inspirational in proving that hard work pays off if you do it long enough.
By: davismr on December 1, 2010 at 11:01 pm
I really wanted to go and hear this speaker when I heard he was visiting BGSU but I had to work. They must have one of the hardest jobs in the world mentally. I was amazed to hear from someone else I know who went how little these referees get paid a year…especially compared to the players they are trying to control. Good Post Joe!