News
Racial milestone no longer a trivia item
What was once a rare milestone at the Super Bowl in February has now become a commonality in the 2020 season.
What was once a rare milestone at the Super Bowl in February has now become a commonality in the 2020 season.
The all-star crew that worked Super Bowl LIV was the first time 5 African-American officials worked any NFL game, and only the fourth game ever — regular or postseason — that at least half the crew was African-American.
The officiating department has broken apart the originally announced crews and rearranged them more or less geographically. As a result, Jerome Boger’s crew will now have 5 black officials, and will continue that way throughout the season, although there will be the typical week-to-week substitutions and the atypical ones brought on due to the coronavirus protocols.
In the 2019 season, it was the first time the NFL had a referee and umpire pair who are black on the same regular-season crew, which seems astonishing that it hasn’t happened sooner. It’s not the first time ever, as Boger was paired with now-retired umpire Darrell Jenkins in Super Bowl XLVII. Including active officials, there have been 80 African-American officials in NFL history.
| Yrs | 2019 crew | College | Occupation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | 23 | Jerome Boger | 17 | Morehouse College | retired commercial insurance underwriter | |
| U | 20 | Barry Anderson | 14 | Allen | North Carolina State | builder/developer |
| DJ | 10 | Julian Mapp | 12 | Rogers | Grambling State | software quality assurance tester |
| LJ | 59 | Rusty Baynes | 11 | Boger | Auburn-Montgomery | general manager, safety services |
| FJ | 104 | Dale Shaw | 8 | Kemp | Allegheny | pharmaceutical sales |
| SJ | 36 | Anthony Jeffries | 3 | Corrente | Alabama-Birmingham | medical sales |
| BJ | 88 | Brad Freeman | 7 | Hussey | Mississippi State | sports park director |
