USA TODAY International Edition
All- Black NFL officiating crew matters now
This is huge on multiple levels. When referee Jerome Boger heads an officiating crew comprised entirely of African Americans to handle a showcase game between the Buccaneers and the Rams on Monday night, it will mark a milestone more than 100 years in the making.
For the first time in NFL history, the league will have a game officiated by an all- Black crew.
Cool optics, NFL.
“This is a great tribute to Black officials,” Rod Graves, executive director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, told USA TODAY. “It goes beyond the professional game, right on down through the college and high school ranks.”
Sure, the NFL has had Black officials for decades since Burl Toler in 1965 became the first such official in any major sport. Boger, a Morehouse man who started at quarterback for four years in college, is one of two Black men to referee a Super Bowl. Aspiring referees who happen to be Black have no whitewash of role models in that regard, with African Americans heading four of the league’s 17 crews.
Yet there’s a distinct social statement with having an all- Black crew about now.
Remember the league’s racial history and its current issues with its teams lagging in providing opportunities to minorities for the most powerful positions. For more context, add the current racial climate – and in some cases, racial reckoning – in this polarized country.
We’ve come a long way since Blacks were not deemed fit to handle the “thinking” positions on the field – quarterback, center, middle linebacker, safety – but the sorry record of teams when considering that minorities filled just three of the last 19 head coaching vacancies in a league where more than 70% of the players are Black underscores the same old concerns about equality.
So to see this statement with the officiating crew happen now, a few months after the image was broadcast repeatedly that showed the heinous killing of George Floyd by a police officer on the street in Minneapolis, means something to us as Black people.
The significance of firsts typically come wrapped with hope and motivation for the future. In the same vein as the recent events of Kamala Harris becoming the first woman elected as vice president and Kim Ng hired by the Miami Marlins as MLB’s first female GM, there’s the potential of see- and- seekto- achieve inspiration.
Yet I’d suspect there’s an additional benefit for young Blacks to see people who look like them being in positions of authority. Even if it’s “just a football game,” it sends a message that runs counter to so many negative images in recent years of Black people being abused – and even killed – on national TV while racial stereotypes and fears have been stoked ad nauseum by some people at the highest levels of our government.
So, yes, even in 2020, these firsts have a significance.
Mark Grant knows. Grant, a director for CBS Sports, was recently part of broadcast history when he teamed with producer Kimani Morales during the telecast of the Chargers- Broncos game on Nov. 1. Grant said the distinction of the first Black producer- director tandem for an NFL telecast was achieved with NBC Sports in 1987 by Kenneth Edmundson and Brian Sherriffe. Yet with the CBS Sports division headed by executive producer Harold Bryant, it was the first time all three of the top positions for an NFL telecast were headed by African Americans.
“To see an all- Black NFL crew is amazing,” Grant told USA TODAY of the Boger- led unit assigned to the game at Tampa Bay. “It just says a lot about where the NFL is. A lot has happened since Colin Kaepernick took that knee ( during the 2016 season). Obviously, the NFL has changed its tune. This shows how far the NFL is willing to go to show that diversity matters.”
Like game officials who are often anonymous until a controversial play occurs, Grant and Morales excel in behind- the- scenes roles largely unknown to the public at large. Both, however, mentioned the congratulatory feedback received from industry peers and coworkers at CBS, where they are part of a steering committee pushing for systemic changes in their company that result in greater diversity. They realize their presence as role models can be significant.
“How many Black producers and directors are out there? Not too many,” Morales told USA TODAY. “The hope is that if someone is hearing about it, that gains a little bit of momentum and there’s a snowball effect to where you get people in college who are more aggressive about seeking out this field and eventually you get more applicants and more companies reaching out to the Black community. That’s kind of the goal.”
Graves, heading the Fritz Pollard Alliance that for many years has pushed for opportunities for minorities to advance – and had a key role in the NFL’s recent expansion of the Rooney Rule – sees the Monday night officiating crew as one of many steps needed to close the racial divide in the NFL. He reiterates the need for better strategic planning and consistency when it comes to diversity and inclusion.
“Only time will tell if we’re on that course,” Graves said.
He won’t disagree that such measures need to be unapologetically intentional. It’s clear that the message the NFL is sending with the all- Black crew is just that, with Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of game operations, pushing to create history.
To assemble the distinctive cast for Monday night, four of the members – Barry Anderson ( umpire), Julian Mapp ( down judge), Dale Shaw ( side judge) and Anthony Jeffries ( field judge) – were already part of Boger’s usual crew for the 2020 season. The others, Carl Johnson ( line judge) and Greg Steed ( back judge), were drawn from other crews.
Kevin Warren, the new Big Ten commissioner, had a similar purpose when he teamed with coordinator of officials Bill Carollo to field an all- Black crew headed by referee Larry Smith for the Minnesota- Michigan game on Oct. 24 that kicked off his conference’s season. It was not only the first time an all- Black crew officiated a game in the Big Ten but also the first for any Power Five conference.
Warren, who worked as an executive for three NFL teams over 22 years, said it was important to strike the achievement for a game at the University of Minnesota because of its proximity to the site of Floyd’s death.
Furthermore, it is refreshing that a Black man empowered with authority felt compelled to send a message about diversity and inclusion.
“I have a fiduciary responsibility to deal with issues that are important to society,” Warren told USA TODAY. “The climate we’re in, with all of these issues, this is the time for leaders to stand on their principles.”
And every measure matters.