The NFL has made several officiating changes for Week 10 in response to Friday’s FAA ground stop. Officials have been reassigned to games that are within driving distance of their hometowns.
Among the biggest changes for Sunday will be two referees working games as umpires, three backup referees assigned to work games, four officials working multiple games, and one game without on-site replay officials and assistants.
Alex Kemp, who is ordinarily a referee, is going to be an umpire under Clete Blakeman for the Packers‘ home game against the Vikings. Carl Cheffers, who is also ordinarily a referee, is going to be an umpire under Bill Vinovich for the Raiders‘ home game against Seattle.
Backup referees Barry Anderson (umpire), Duane Heydt (umpire) and Don Willard (side judge) will each work as referees on Sunday. Anderson will work the Titans‘ home game against the Jaguars. Willard, who has never worked as a referee for a regular season game, will work the Colts‘ home game against the Dolphins before making the nearly two-hour drive to Cincinnati to work the night game between the Bengals and Steelers.
Along with Williard, umpire Terry Killens, field judge Jabir Walker and side judge Justin Larrew will also make the road trip from Indianapolis to Pittsburgh to work Sunday night’s game in Cincinnati after working the Colts-Dolphins game. This might get interesting if the Colts-Dolphins game goes into overtime, delaying their arrival in Cincinnati. Regardless, it’s safe to assume that there will be no shortage of caffeine consumption for this group of officials on Sunday.
As noted above, the league’s replay officials and assistants were also impacted by the ground stop. The result is that the Panthers‘ home game against the Saints‘ will not have on-site replay officials and assistants.
How will all this impact the games? CBS Sports NFL sideline reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala asked a longtime, now-retired NFL official whether these changes will create any specific challenges. According to his response, the first few series may go a long way toward determining how smoothly the rest of the game goes.
“He said familiarity and a general crew tempo are real, so we should watch how the officials adjust to each other the first couple series,” Kinkhabwala wrote on X. “And while most officials watch film of the teams they have to be aware of tendencies (and won’t have time to do so now), he did downplay any impact there, saying it’s ultimately all about watching your keys.”
The FAA ground stop — the second since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — resulted in more than 2,000 canceled flights. The stop was later attributed to the addition of new technology to the nation’s air traffic control system, which caused “intermittent” communications and radar gaps.
