Two veteran umpires retire from the NFL

Two NFL umpires, Tony Michalek and Bruce Stritesky have retired from the NFL. The two represent 32 years of NFL experience.

Bruce Stritesky

Bruce Stritesky retires after a 19 year career. He wore number 102 his entire career.

Stritesky worked 10 playoff games on the field – six wild card games, three divisional games and one conference championship game. Over the years he served on crews lead by Terry McAulay, Jeff Triplette, Scott Green, Tony Steratore, Bill Vinovich and Brad Allen. He was a swing official for five seasons – meaning he was umpire on a different crew each week.

Off the field, Stritesky is an airline pilot.

Tony Michalek

Tony Michalek retires after a 23 seasons as an umpire. He wore number 115 his entire career. He served on crews lead by Gerry Austin, Bill Carollo, Bill Vinovich, John Parry, Gene Steratore, Ron Winter, Jerome Boger, John Hussey, Brad Rogers and Tra Blake.

During his career, he worked 12 playoff games – three wild card games, six divisional playoffs, two conference championship games, and Super Bowl XLII.

Off the field, Michalek is a CEO in the financial sector.

Both umpires worked in the era where they had to line up in the defensive backfield even with the linebackers. They had to do a lot of darting and dodging before the NFL moved their position to the offensive backfield in 2010.

Football Zebras congratulates Bruce Striteky and Tony Michalek on outstanding NFL careers and wishes them the best in retirement.