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CNN Live Sunday

Why a Good NFL Referee is Invisible

Aired September 09, 2001 - 17:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: For at least the next few weeks, NFL fans will be watching the men in striped shirts as much as they watch the players wearing pads. Replacement officials will be on the field as long as the permanent officials remain locked out. It is a job where good days are measured by how you can be ignored.

CNN's Brian Palmer Explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holding, number 90 of the kicking team...

BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are seven officials on the field during an NFL game. Six black hats, one white hat. He's the referee, the one who runs the show, who keeps the organized chaos known as professional football as clean as it can be.

Jim Tunney is a former NFL referee, a white-hat; a 31-year veteran with three Superbowls to his name.

JIM TUNNEY, FORMER NFL REFEREE: If I were sum up the one thing that an official needs to do in the National Football League, it's, one, to protect the integrity of the game; to be sure rules are enforced the way they're designed.

PALMER: But it's often, in fact usually, a thankless job. Fans and players ignore officials when things are going well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we have to see them, then we're in trouble. Then there's a bad call.

PALMER: But refs are not in it for the love.

TUNNEY: Do fans really boo? I've never heard them. I don't hear them. On the football field I block out all that. I'm there as an impartial judge.

PALMER: And from some fans, grudging appreciation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're a big part of the game, you know. People don't like to see a bad referee.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They've got to have a clear perspective. They cannot be biased. They can't be, like me, a big Jets fan. TUNNEY: You want to be invisible in a sense, because you're not the stars. The stars are the players and the coaches and the teams themselves.

PALMER: Players realize refs keep them safe from other players.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to know that these referees are watching this guy, making sure that he's not holding, that he's not tugging, that he's not doing some thing that are illegal within the -- outside the parameters of rules of game.

PALMER: The rules of game. That's what the job is all about.

TUNNEY: The players, the coaches are all trying to win. The fans are all trying to win. It doesn't make any difference what they say. Don't worry about what their actions are; you do the job the way you're trained to do it and designed to do it, and it will come out right.

PALMER: Brian Palmer, CNN, East Rutherford, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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