Boris Cheek will tie the NFL record for most games officiated

While aggrieved fan bases might be keeping tabs on the number of penalties or penalty yardage, the officiating world really doesn’t have many statistics, and some of the key ones really aren’t tracked well at all.

With an enormous heavy lift from our partner website Quirky Research, we have determined that side judge Boris Cheek is working his 460th game on Sunday, which will tie him with former referee Walt Coleman for the most NFL games worked by an official.

			Seasons	Years	Games
R	65	Walt Coleman	30	1989-2018	460
FJ-SJ	41	Boris Cheek	29	1996-	459
DJ-LJ	32	Jeff Bergman	30	1991-96, 1998-2019, 2021-22	456
SJ-FJ	15	Rick Patterson	29	1996-	452
R	85	Ed Hochuli	28	1990-2017	447
R	32	Jim Tunney	31	1960-1990	*444

Games through Week 15 for Cheek and Patterson. Predominant position(s) listed for each official, regular season and postseason only, not including preseason or Pro Bowls. *Estimated due to gaps in records.

Except for some dedicated zebra watchers, the name Boris Cheek is almost completely unknown, which could be said is a mark of success in officiating.

Cheek entered the NFL in 1996, along with field judge Rick Patterson, who is just behind him with 452 games. Also in that rookie class of 1996 were two future referees, Walt Anderson (24 seasons) and Jeff Triplette (22); in addition, there was head linesman Gary Slaughter (12), and a side judge named Mike Pereira (2). Pereira and Anderson both headed the officiating department at one time, and as we know Pereira is with Fox Sports, and Anderson has a new role in the department. Slaughter also worked in the officiating office in a supervisor capacity.

In his 29 seasons, Cheek has worked both deep wing positions, field judge and currently a side judge.

(Cheek and his fellow officials on the current roster are prohibited by their contract to talk to the media during the season.)

A meteoric rise

While the path for nearly every official weaves through the various collegiate divisions, Boris Cheek — or Bo, to those who know him well — took the path that was a straight line.

“After graduation, he got into officiating,” said Michele Cheek, his wife of 39 years. “He started doing church league and he joined the Eastern Board of Officials.”

Throughout the ’80s, he was working local games. In 1994, the Canadian Football League ramped up its expansion and were adding teams in the United States. Cheek was able to work the CFL in the two seasons it was in America.

Several of the American contingent of CFL officials would eventually be hired by the NFL, including referee Bill Vinovich and umpire Carl Paganelli.

Scott Green is the executive director of the NFL Referees Association, the officiating union. He started at the position now known as the back judge in the NFL, and would ascend to the referee position in 2005. “Boris and I go way back since he came from the D.C. area,” Green said. “I remember asking guys what they thought of him, and they said he is doing pretty good in the Canadian League. I said, ‘The Canadian League? You got to be kidding me.’ Little did I know at the time, he would become a super crew mate and solid NFL official.”

At the same time, the NFL Europe league was in operation, and the officiating department would use it for evaluating talent in their hiring pipeline. “The kids were young, I had a map of the world and we would put thumbtacks to different places he’d go,” Michele Cheek said.

In Europe, he worked with Pete Morelli, who would become an NFL referee. “I was fortunate to start my career being on an NFL Europe crew with Boris. I have found Boris to be one of the finest deep officials in the NFL.” Cheek would spent a few seasons on Morelli’s crew after he was hired by the NFL.

After the CFL ended its American experiment, none of the stateside officials were retained. But the next year, Jerry Seeman, the venerable head of officiating in the 1990s, called to welcome Boris to the NFL before the 1996 season. His wife originally took the call, as Boris was attending an officiating clinic. She was able to get in touch with him to call back the league office.

Michele said that Seeman “didn’t tell me what he was calling about. It must be good news, and that’s what it was. I was excited because he didn’t get picked up by any college.”

Wait — he didn’t work any college football? Seeman was a stickler for high performance standards and was able to recognize the fast-rising talent of Cheek. His lack of a college résumé is not something that is likely to ever be repeated by a future NFL official.

“I was assigned to a crew in the NFL’s European League [in 1995],” said former NFL umpire Steve Wilson. “It was at that time that I met Boris, number 41, for the very first time. What an incredible story of his career. I don’t believe Boris ever officiated a college football game and yet he was able to rise to the highest level in professional football!”

In his first NFL season, Cheek was assigned to referee Gerry Austin’s crew. Cheek got off to an inauspicious start before he even stepped onto the field.

“We were in Pittsburgh. And at that time, our crews had to rent cars,” said Austin. “I told him, ‘Boris, you are the rookie, so you got to drive one of the cars.’ And he says, ‘What if I just get a van and that’ll take care of all of us?’ “

Austin soon found out Cheek was quite a conversationalist. “I think he started talking six months before he was born and hasn’t shut up yet,” he joked. “We get in the van at the airport and he’s just talking away. He puts it in reverse and hits one of those huge concrete columns. That was our first day together as a crew, and then we did the preseason game at night.”

It may have been an inauspicious first impression — Austin also shared that as a golfing novice, Cheek unknowingly drove his cart onto the green that season — but that all faded away when he was on the field.

“Seriously, he’s a good crewmate, he’s a great official. And if I was doing a crew now I’d want him on it.”

Raising a family in a basketball household

Despite his trade, Cheek encouraged his kids to play basketball, as he had when he was at Morgan State in the early ’80s.

“That’s what we did in the house, we played basketball,” said his son Justin Cheek, the youngest of three children. “So for him to have a job as an official in the NFL, or just in football in general, it was a weird crossover, but my dad grew up playing a whole bunch of different sports. As far back as I can remember, he put a basketball in my hands and I was in diapers, you know, talking about beating Michael Jordan and shooting a basketball with him. Not a football in sight. I just can’t remember it when I knew he was an NFL official, but I always just knew he had a cool job.”

Justin and his sister Joy Smith both played basketball in college. Joy played for Duke, wearing number 21, just as her father did in college. After playing a few games in the WNBA, she got into coaching, and is now an assistant coach for the Ole Miss women’s basketball team.

“He coached me a little bit when I was younger,” Smith said. “But I quickly figured out he and I are very much alike and that wasn’t gonna work too well. So he didn’t coach me too long, but he was still kind of my coach, unofficially.”

Jessica Spencer, his oldest daughter, didn’t pick up the basketball bug, but followed his path into teaching. “We both had the same career like he was in education, I’m in education,” she said. “There was one big time in my life when I won Teacher of the Year. And I that’s who I took to my interview on news was my dad. I didn’t play sports, but it was other things that I did and my dad was always there for that.”

Working as an official is not always compatible with family life. Since most have regular full-time jobs in addition to the full-time-equivalent NFL work during the season, officials have to strike a “work-work-life balance.” All three of his kids said that, although he wasn’t there on the weekends, mostly, he made sure to be engaged in his family life.

“To be honest with you, for every big function I can’t think of a time that he wasn’t there,” Spencer said.

Smith talked about her parents involvement as well. “As I got through college and being able to have my parents at a lot of my games. It really impacted me in a positive way. Like in my sophomore season I had a huge slump, and was having a tough time and my mom was working, but my dad, during the week, he wasn’t. So he was able to come up, and he just spent the day with me. It really meant a lot, so —.” Her voice quavered a little, and then she added, “Yeah, I don’t know if he knew how much that meant to me. But for him to just be able to have the time to work weekends and be able to come to my games, that meant a lot.”

Fortunately, Justin’s and Joy’s basketball schedules didn’t overlap too much with their father’s officiating schedule, except for the occasional weekend basketball games or a weekday NFL assignment.

Despite the NFL commitments, his wife Michele said, “we just continue life and he — like Joy’s games or Justin’s games or Jessica’s something — he was always available to do those things, but in the meantime I kept other things running so that all of that could flow.”

The road to 460

Boris Cheek entered the NFL at the age of 37, which did give him an advantage on his path to officiating longevity.

“He got a better start than the rest of us did because at the time that I came in, they really didn’t give you much consideration until you were around 40 years old,” former referee Gerry Austin said. “[Rick] Patterson and and Jeff [Bergman] were in their early 30s when they came in, so that gave them a better chance for a longer longevity than most officials.”

Cheek served on several crews through his 29 seasons: Austin (1 season), Larry Nemmers (2), Jeff Triplette (4), Tom White (5), Bernie Kukar (1), Scott Green (4), Carl Cheffers (1), Mike Carey (1), Walt Coleman (1), Pete Morelli (3), Tony Corrente (2), Brad Allen (3), and he’s currently working on Shawn Smith’s crew since the beginning of this season.

“He is well respected by officials, players, and coaches,” Morelli said. “Boris brings a positive attitude to any crew. He constantly encourages other officials and his expertise is so valuable to a crew. I was so appreciative with all the help, support, fun, and laughter that Boris brings to a crew. The NFL is blessed with his service.”

“Bo has been a great official for the league for many years,” said Walt Anderson, the current NFL officiating rules analyst who joined the league as an official that same year as Cheek. “This achievement is a testimony to his great career and years of service to the game and the profession of officiating.”

Bill Carollo, currently the supervisor of officiating in the Big Ten conference, was a referee for 12 of his 20 NFL seasons. “I worked with Boris in his first playoff game and he knocked it out of the park in Cleveland,” he said. “At that moment I knew he would be a fixture in the NFL for many years. Boris has been a ‘rock’ in terms of football officiating. He is a role model for today’s officials and a friend for life. One of the best ever.”

Part of Cheek’s 460 games are 20 postseason games, including 7 Wild Card Playoffs, 6 Divisional Playoffs, 4 Conference Championship games, and Super Bowls XLII, 50, and LIV. (Not counted in that total are 5 playoff alternate assignments, including Super Bowl LVII, and 2 Pro Bowls.)

Former referee Walt Coleman, who will share the record for one week until being surpassed, was Cheek’s crew chief in 2015. He remembered a Week 16 game between the Eagles and Washington that had a very unusual sequence that encapsulates Cheek’s awareness and skills as a successful football official.

“We had this punt,” Coleman said. “And Bo had his flag down. He came in, he said, ‘Well, I don’t know what I have.’ And, that can make you kind of uncomfortable as a referee when somebody has a flag down, and they don’t really know what they have.”

Something was clearly wrong. But what was it? Coleman and Cheek worked it out while viewers were in commercial.

“What happened was: on the punt, a player the receiving team came onto the field after the ball had been punted,” Coleman continued. “And Bo, you know, he’s way downfield. Well, he didn’t actually see the guy. He just had the feeling that something wasn’t right.”

“I think it’s more just because of Bo, how comfortable he is and how good an official he is, he realized that something wasn’t right. And so we penalized the team and we wind up getting the play right. But that was an instance where just Bo’s experience and the quality official he is; we were able to get that call. I mean, that’s the only time that ever happened in my 30 years.”

Austin summed up Cheek’s qualities as a superior official, saying, “You can have officials that have Bo’s of experience. They don’t have that ‘C.F.S.’ — common football sense. And I talk about that when I’m doing camps and clinics about having C.F.S. And I’ll say this for Bo, he has that. He has that sense about the spirit of the game, how the rules should be applied, and don’t get in the way of a good football game. Get the stuff that’s got to be gotten.”

Austin added the wisdom of the only official in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “That’s one thing Art McNally would always preach, ‘Don’t go out there looking for stuff, but if it’s there, have the courage to make the call.’ And Bo is in that category.”

Former NFL umpire Steve Wilson, who met Cheek in NFL Europe, said, “He is always been an incredible crewmate, someone who strives for excellence. Boris is not only one of the finest officials in the National Football League, but he is a fantastic friend and comrade.”

(Click or slide to view additional pictures)

His son, Justin, is also impressed by his athleticism on the field. “I don’t know how he does it, but he does, and whenever their birthdays — both my parents — their birthdays roll around, I’m like, ‘Damn, hold up. Y’all that old?’ And they’re not really that old because I look at them, and I just cross my fingers and hope that it works out the same way for me and my sisters. But, it is an interesting perspective because you have guys out there in the NFL running 40-yard dashes in 4 seconds and stuff like that. Now we have a 60-something-year-old man on the sideline keeping up with a wide receiver that runs the 40 in 4 on the sidelines!”

“That’s a mental thing for him,” his daughter, Jessica, adds, “and I think we get that genetically. Like, ‘I wanna quit on my own terms, not because I physically can’t.’ So he’s not gonna let the young players show him up. He going to let them know that I’m 65 and I can do it and this is 65.”

Coleman said, reflecting on his own 460-game career, “He’s an ultimate professional and he’s the kind of guy that you want to have out there because you don’t have to worry about what he’s gonna do, what he’s gonna call. That’s all you can ask for from your crew. And, obviously, I was fortunate, you know, in my 24 years as a referee to have really good people on my crew. I’m not sure I would have survived 30 years if I hadn’t been fortunate enough to have really good folks. And obviously Bo was right up there with the good ones that I had the opportunity to work with.”

“Congrats, Bo,” said NFLRA executive director Scott Green. “You outlasted all of us!”

Boris Cheek's NFL assignments

Every regular season and postseason game Boris Cheek worked

(In the table above, note that the position “back judge” was applied to what is now the field judge position; those position names were swapped in 1998.)

Reflections on an achievement

His wife, Michele, says, “I’m excited for him that he’s been in the league this long and he’s worked this many games, especially when he started off and we never had imagined that it would even get to that he would be where he is today. It’s something that that Boris loves to do and he’s he’s passionate about it. So, I’m just happy for him that he’s about to get the record. I just really hadn’t realized that he’s worked that many games.”

His children, justifiably, are proud of him.

Joy reflected on the milestone, saying, “My dad always got me cool points because everybody thought what he did was pretty cool. I love to share with people about what he does. But I guess my biggest thing is just going after something that he didn’t really know much about. He went in there and just grind it and learned it and perfected it and worked hard at it. I think that’s one thing I’ve learned from my dad. Just seeing how he’s stuck it out. You’ve seen a lot of guys come in and out of the league. And to be able to do that for 30 years, like it’s crazy. I sit back and think about it like, man, you did this for 30 years. I think he’s just going to crush this record and he’s going to be the new standard bearer for quite some time.”

Justin shared, “I mean, honestly, if there was anything to say, I would definitely just want to congratulate him. I think this is definitely a feat that he was made for to overcome. He’s very functional, persistent, passionate about what he does, and this, just knowing him and how he is and how he thinks, it doesn’t surprise me at all.”

Jessica got emotional when asked to sum up her father and his accomplishments. “What do I want people to know about Boris Orlando Cheek?” saying his name at half the speed of the rest of the sentence. “That is a hardworking man.” She pauses for a bit to compose herself, pushing ahead to add, “I would tell people I’m the sensitive one, but that’s, that’s a hardworking man that’s very family oriented and dedicated to everything that he does. He puts his best foot forward. That’s pretty much what he is.”

The record for number of seasons worked is 31, held by the late referee Ben Dreith and referee Jim Tunney, who we lost this week.

Michele says he should just keep forging ahead. “I don’t know if he’s gonna stick it out another three years or not, but he should get 32 and be by himself.”

Photos: George Gojkovich/Getty Images Sport, graphic by Ben Austro for Football Zebras; CFL roster via Quirky Research; family photos provided by Michele Cheek; Getty and team photography slideshows credited as indicated.