May 15 is the end of the officiating offseason. There are high expectations for the new NFL officiating leadership

May 15 is the beginning of the new year on one calendar: NFL officiating. Today, the officiating offseason comes to an end as mandated by their collective bargaining agreement. During the “dark period” that begins after the playoffs, the officiating department cannot contact their officials with some narrow exceptions for things like job vacancies. (More on that in a bit.) This allows the officials to be distraction-free during a 3½ month stretch.

During the dark period, officials do engage in officiating work, such as maintaining their fitness and teaching at a myriad of officiating clinics. Most officials will also do their own personal film and rules study as well.

Of the major American sports leagues, the NFL is the only one that has a longer offseason than in-season.

On May 15, officials typically receive “Memo #1” in their inboxes which will note the outgoing and incoming officials, provide information to conduct physicals, handle some human-resources details, and outline the rules changes. Typically. This year is far from typical.

NFL officiating turned over a new leaf earlier this month, as Ramon George became the new vice president of officiating. Mark Butterworth was also hired to be vice president of replay. There is going to be a new management structure in the officiating office.

New management means new organization chart

George and Butterworth will have vice president titles, and George Stewart, vice president of officiating training and development, will retain his title. The details have not been finalized, but the new reporting structure appears to be the three vice presidents will report to Perry Fewell (pictured above), senior vice president of officiating administration. Fewell would be the sole direct report to executive vice president Vincent. Our sources said this could change over the coming days.

This is an interesting way to change things. Gone are the days when there was one head of officials with some directors and supervisors who ran the whole operation. From budgeting, paperwork, policy, rules, scouting, hiring, grading, professional development, replay, technology and mechanics, one person can’t oversee it all in 2024.

New structure on paper should cause more accountability

While some may wonder about so many vice presidents, this is the way a multi-billion dollar corporation runs. This gives each person a core of duties and responsibilities and expectations.

Hypothetically if there are problems with replay, Butterworth will be expected to fix it. If young officials are having problems learning the NFL, Stewart is responsible to properly train the zebras. If there are gaps in coverage on long chunk plays, George is expected to revise mechanics and teach the new positioning philosophy to the crews.

If the NFL upper management wants changes or has concerns about officiating, they talk to Fewell and the senior vice president will pass the word along. George, Stewart and Butterworth are free to do their jobs without worrying about the commissioner sticking his head into the office and ordering them around.

In prior officiating administrations with each person holding the same “rank,” there could have been questions about who was the boss. It could have lead to turf wars. On paper this new structure should cut down on that.

The new organization chart should allow George to concentrate on the on-field officiating product. He can let Butterworth worry about replay and Stewart can focus on training new officials. Hopefully this structure will allow all vice presidents to focus on excellence in their areas and avoid undue stress.

A source was optimistic about this approach: “Everyone has a role. Do your job or get out.”

Vice president of officiating needs to be a longer commitment

Former officiating vice president, Dean Blandino, said the shelf life of an officiating boss is five years. I disagree with his opinion. I believe the vice president should hold the job closer to a decade.

Art McNally served as the officiating boss for 22 years. Jerry Seeman served for 10 years. Mike Pereira served nine. Carl Johnson served three years. Dean Blandino, Al Riveron and Walt Anderson all served four years (although Riveron and Anderson had an awkward sharing position for one year before Riveron retired).

Each officiating director/vice president/senior vice president through Riveron took the job in their early 40s to mid-50s. Things set up nicely for Johnson, Blandino and Riveron to put in a good 10+ years at the post, but politics or burnout or more lucrative opportunities contributed to a short term. Walt Anderson was 67 when he took over the job, so he wasn’t a long-term solution (although he only stepped away from the post when his son was hired).

While I doubt anyone will put in 22 years again, we need the vice president of officiating to hold the post at least eight years, if not 10 or 12. The position needs stability. When a new boss comes in, they bring with them new philosophies and a way of doing business and new employees must adapt. We’ve seen in the past that the change in administrations leads to several retirements from the field as the new leader weeds out officials they think need to go and brings in new officials to freshen up the roster. That has been true from Jerry Seeman up until today.

In the past few administrations, the new boss had turned over the roster and was just putting their stamp on officiating, and then they left. That meant instability for the roster of officials as they had to lather, rinse and repeat with a new leader.

That can’t happen anymore. Since 2010 there has been too much turnover at George’s position. George is 51. Things are setting up nicely for him to put in 10 or more years as vice president of officiating. For officiating’s sake there needs to be stability in the NFL officiating office. Personally, I have high hopes with George taking the job.

Ben Austro contributed to this report.