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Football Officiating => National Football League => Topic started by: golfingref on November 03, 2016, 12:04:36 PM

Title: Why do NFL officials have numbers?
Post by: golfingref on November 03, 2016, 12:04:36 PM

Was asked by my 6 year old nephew this weekend. Didn't have an answer for him.


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Title: Re: Why do NFL officials have numbers?
Post by: TampaSteve on November 03, 2016, 01:20:30 PM

I would suppose mainly for ID purposes.
However, back in the day, numbers were assigned as officials came into the league. 
i.e. a guy numbered 50 was on board ('seasoned') longer than number 60.
Ah, but those with higher numbers became targets as inexperienced (rooke) officials and now numbers are randomly handed out.

Title: Re: Why do NFL officials have numbers?
Post by: Rulesman on November 03, 2016, 03:31:25 PM

Agree for ID purposes. Remember back in the day the uniform shirts only listed a number, not a position. The only other identifying difference that came later on was the R wearing a black cap. Everyone else wore white. And the way mechanics were worked in the early days had guys running all over the place. Keeping a play boxed in was not in the manual. LOL!

Title: Re: Why do NFL officials have numbers?
Post by: Clear Lake ref on November 07, 2016, 09:46:32 PM

Also of note all 4 major pro sports have officials in numbers.