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Author Topic: Why do NFL officials have numbers?  (Read 6545 times)

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Offline golfingref

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Why do NFL officials have numbers?
« 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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Offline TampaSteve

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Re: Why do NFL officials have numbers?
« Reply #1 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.
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Offline Rulesman

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Re: Why do NFL officials have numbers?
« Reply #2 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!
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Offline Clear Lake ref

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Re: Why do NFL officials have numbers?
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2016, 09:46:32 PM »
Also of note all 4 major pro sports have officials in numbers.
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