It’s officially a road trip.
The chaos caused by Friday’s nationwide ground stop prompted the NFL to get very creative with its officiating assignments. That creativity includes four officials getting in a car and traveling from Indianapolis to Cincinnati to work a doubleheader separated by 110 miles.
Via Aditi Kinkhabwala of CBS, backup referee Don Willard will be joined by umpire Terry Killens (pictured), field judge Jabir Walker, and side judge Justin Larrew in the effort to officiate two games in one day: Dolphins-Colts and Steelers-Bengals.
Per the league, not at least since 1970 has an official worked two games in one day.
The full scope of the changes to the usual crew won’t be publicly known until the games are completed and the official Game Books are posted by the league; each one includes the full list of officials by position.
It there are glitches, some will ask why the NFL resorted to such an extreme plan to ensure that there will be enough officials at every game. They use crews for a reason. On Sunday, those crews apparently will be obliterated.