'Only A Game' Looks At An NFL Ref's Life

Are You Ready For Some Football?

BOSTON UNIVERSITY noncommercial News-Talk WBUR/BOSTON and NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO's "ONLY A GAME" producer DOUG TRIBOU took an unusual approach to reporting on the controversy surrounding the NFL officials' lockout this season, and the result was a segment with retired NFL referee BILL CAROLLO that has the longtime official walking TRIBOU through a week on the job, from the end of a SUNDAY afternoon game through the end of the next week's game.

The interview, also available in written form at WBUR's website, shows what refs do once the game is over, from reviewing tapes to taking conference calls, sometimes conflicting with their "day jobs" (CAROLLO, an IBM executive, would sometimes field phone calls about his officiating work while on the road in CHINA), before the next kickoff, about which CAROLLO said, "That’s the best part of the week. Sunday afternoon at kick-off, those three hours, it’s beautiful."

Hear and read the story at WBUR.com.

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