The NFL is the highest-grossing sports association in the world, but there is one interesting fact about the league that could catch some off guard. Even with the sustained success over several decades, the NFL is still the only league without full-time referees.
The NFL’s estimated revenues came out to around 21 billion in 2024. Their success, driven by a very large audience, continues to grow, with the ongoing talent being put into this league. There are now multiple games per season played overseas, along with prime-time games being shown on Amazon and ESPN.
Even with all of these accolades, they are the only league without full-time referees. First-year Blake Shollenberger gave his thoughts on the current state of officiating in the NFL.
“The NFL is so big and it obviously generates so much money and yet the refs are so terrible,” Shollenberger said. “[The NFL] should definitely invest more into [referees] and instead of them being part-time, like in the off-season and stuff, they should still get paid to do training almost every day like a normal job so they don’t suck as much.”
Shollenberger is not alone when it comes to his negative opinion on NFL referees.
First-year Caden Tucker is especially not a fan of the league not having full-time referees.
“I am not a fan of the NFL not having full-time referees. In order for the sport to run as smooth as possible, you know refs need to be on the same page in each game, and especially in the NFL, it’s obviously important for them to know the rules to a tee because it can change the outcome of a game,” Tucker said. “I remember the [New Orleans] Saints vs. [the Los Angeles] Rams playoff game and Drew Brees threw a ball to Tavon Austin and there was a clear [pass interference] and it got missed, and that’s one of the many times the outcome of the game could have been changed.”
Due to the NFL season being much shorter than the three other major sports, most referees work other jobs, even if the pay is substantial. Most work as lawyers, teachers, business executives and other roles during the off season and on weekdays.
First-year Matt Sissick refers to the refs watching film and taking the full week to review the game and what they could have called better.
“If the refs were full-time, they could watch a lot more film and truly take more time than I’m sure they already do, to prevent some of the mistakes of mess up calls when plays aren’t allowed to be reviewed,” said Sissick.
There are very strong but similar opinions held around the NFL referee topic, and with the amount of money put into the sport, these opinions are here to stay.
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