‘Workaholic’ NFL rules expert Gene Steratore runs side-hustle business with referee brother

Gene Steratore is best-known as the man that breaks down all the intricate rules and calls of professional football.

Since 2018, the former NFL official has served as CBS Sports’ rules analyst, and barely a Sunday goes by without the broadcast calling on Steratore for his expert insight.

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In more recent years, the man who refereed Super Bowl LII has also added Netflix to his already impressive resume.

Steratore was on hand to provide analysis for the streamer’s Christmas Day games in 2024 and 2025, with this year’s offering being the Washington Commanders vs Dallas Cowboys, and the Minnesota Vikings vs Detroit Lions — which also featured a father and son broadcast duo.

Already a massive name in the sports broadcasting world thanks to his work in both the NFL and college basketball, landing on Netflix has introduced the former official to a global audience.

But those who live in his home state of Pennsylvania perhaps know Steratore for something else.

NFL rules analyst runs unique business with brother

Steratore spent 15 years in the NFL between 2003 and 2018, and also worked as an NCAA Division I basketball referee for more than two decades, between 1997 and 2018.

He is one of very few people who have officiated in two sports at the same time.

But despite being kept busy for 15 years, the man who was once dubbed the ‘Deion Sanders of referees’ (a two-sport star of sorts), still had time for a side hustle.

Gene and his older brother Tony, who was also an NFL official for more than two decades, together run a janitorial paper supply distribution company out of Western Pennsylvania.

They have been operating the family business, Steratore Sanitary Supplies, since way back in 1988.

According to their website, the business supplies over 300 companies with janitorial products, and continues to grow year after year.

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They offer clients thousands of different tools, from mops, pads and sponges, to dilution systems, equipment and machinery.

Co-owners Tony and Gene, who also served as president and vice president of Steratore Sanitary Supplies, were described as ‘workaholics’ when they balanced their careers as NFL officials and businessmen.

“We probably dedicate two hours a day to our business and six hours to looking at NFL film,” Tony once revealed.

What Super Bowl games did the Steratore brothers officiate?

Day to day, the brothers worked to supply their Pennsylvania clients with top of the range cleaning and sanitation supplies.

Then, on Sundays in Autumn, they would stand on the field as the likes of Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers played around them.

Tony officiated in two Super Bowl games, the first being Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005, when the New England Patriots beat the Philadelphia Eagles.

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He was also in charge for Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, where the New York Giants beat the Patriots in 2012.

Gene, meanwhile, had his big moment in 2018, when the Eagles beat New England in Super Bowl LII.

He still lives and breathes the game of football, but from slightly further afar a CBS analyst.

His day job alongside brother Tony, though, remains worlds apart from the glitz and glamor of the NFL.

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