A WEEK IN THE LIFE ...
Gene Steratore estimates that he devotes 25 to 30 hours each week to his job as an NFL referee. Here is a day-by-day look at his schedule, starting with Wednesday:
Wednesday: Starts preparing agenda for his meeting with his crew on Saturday. Final grades for his crew from the previous game arrive from the league office.
Thursday: Begins studying video of teams in his Sunday assignment. He watches two dozen plays from each team — offense, defense and special teams. He looks at specific matchups.
"Maybe there is a rookie left tackle that's playing a great defensive end that week," he says. "You know you've got a hot spot possibly there."
He also studies schemes. Do teams blitz a lot? Do they play more zone coverage? What kind of passing attack does each offense employ? Do the teams play fast tempo? No huddle?
Steratore compiles notes to share with his crew.
Friday: More video review.
Saturday: Travels to NFL city early morning, then meets with his crew from 2:30 p.m. until dinner. They go over notes, review training tapes and areas of focus. The entire crew eats together that night.
Sunday (1 p.m. Eastern kickoff): Devotional with crew at 7:30 a.m. Arrives at stadium three hours before kickoff.
Steratore meets with TV production crew and occasionally broadcasters to go over number of timeouts, how many cameras will be used and other details.
Then he meets with NFL security and checks his microphone, game clocks and inflation levels of footballs.
"Seventy-five minutes before kickoff," he says, "I'm still in my coat and tie."
Once dressed in his ref uniform, he meets with both head coaches. Kickoff is near.
Postgame, his crew is driven directly to an airport. Steratore is given a flash drive that contains the TV broadcast of the game.
He watches his game on the plane without pausing it because "I want to see how the production played to the viewer. It's important that it flows a certain way."
Steratore usually arrives home in time to watch the Sunday night game.
Tuesday: Package from NFL arrives that contains comprehensive video of every NFL game from the weekend.
Midafternoon, the league e-mails preliminary grades for his crew. Every official is graded on every single play.
Steratore conducts a conference call with his crew at 9 p.m. to discuss their grades and any rulings deemed potentially wrong. They respond to the NFL with explanations for why they made certain calls.
Wednesday: The league reviews the crew's response to potential downgrades. Final grades are issued later in the afternoon. Then the process starts again.
