It's the LAST DAY to donate and pick up any of our thank-you gifts at a discount. 🔥 Give Now!
You Hate My Job

You Hate My Job: Football referee (plus, a ref quiz!)

Kai Ryssdal Jan 31, 2014
HTML EMBED:
COPY
You Hate My Job

You Hate My Job: Football referee (plus, a ref quiz!)

Kai Ryssdal Jan 31, 2014
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Despite a career as an NFL referee from 1989 to 2008, Bill Carollo says it was always nerve wracking: “If you say that you’re not nervous, you’re probably kidding yourself, and you probably aren’t really prepared,” says Carollo. “You think you know yourself pretty well, but when you get out on the big stage and Vanessa Williams [is] singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl and jets are flying over … I thought I was really ready, and I couldn’t even swallow.” 

Carollo says death threats were always part of the job, even when the right call is made. One decision in a championship game that went against Tampa Bay resulted in “200 calls [to] my house. I’m unlisted. 15 to 16 people were arrested for death threats. I had to pull my kids out of school. And that’s when you make the right call.” (See video of the controversial call over at NFL.com) 

Take Bill Carollo’s officials’ exam  

 

 

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.