Three NFL referees have been dismissed from their roles with the league, but, rather than being released, were instead relegated back to college football. According to Football Zebras, the trio have been sent back to “power conferences” to ref college games rather than NFL ones.
It’s a curious move for a couple of reasons. For one, another source told Football Zebras that giving the officials this choice to be moved from the NFL to the college ranks bypassed the union and any possible grievance for the dismissal. It also shows that vice president of officiating, Ramon George, is, per Football Zebra’s reporting, “advancing accountability” among officials, and attempting to continually improve the aggregate performance of the refs through the use of data.
What remains less clear is whether or not these three officials — umpire James Carter, line judge Robin DeLorenzo, and down judge Robert Richeson — will be able to return to the NFL as referees at some point in the future. “All three officials do have the ability to work at the college level, re-enter the development program, and work their way back into the NFL,” Football Zebras reported. “Some of the sources we spoke to were skeptical that it is possible for an official to return to the league, but most of those we spoke to acknowledged that there is no way to be certain, since this hadn’t been done before.”
That they weren’t dismissed outright leaves open that possibility, sure, but that this move itself is unprecedented means it’s unclear if the entire process is changing, if this is about further developing these officials in non-NFL games, or if this is just as much of a goodbye as before, but with a workaround to avoid the union and a possible grievance by way of hooking the trio up with new jobs elsewhere.
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