5 of the 7 members of the officiating crew working the Super Bowl are African American, the most ever for an NFL game.
The five African American officials working Sunday’s game are: line judge Carl Johnson; side judge Boris Cheek; field judge Michael Banks; back judge Greg Steed; and umpire Barry Anderson. The other two are Bill Vinovich, referee and head of the crew; and Kent Payne, down judge. .
All five have years of experience as NFL officials: Johnson has 16 years; Cheek 24; Banks 18; Steed 17; and Anderson 13. All have worked the Super Bowl before, although it will Anderson’s first on-field appearance .. “I am so proud of the African American officials who are working the Super Bowl,” said C. Keith Harrison, an associate professor in Sports Business Management at the University of Central Florida, who hason diversity and mobility in the hiring of coaches and coordinators.
“The numbers are telling. The league uses true metrics to make the decisions. And the best among the league’s officials are justifiably rewarded.”“What the difference in outcomes between hiring coaches and rating officials is that if you are an official, you pay your dues, and your performance is measured by measures that are static,” he said. “If you are among the best, you are rewarded. With the coaches, what is required to get hired changes yearly.
Larry Hill, who is African American and retired in 1992 after 18 years, said the league only hired its first black on-field official,“Our numbers took years to really improve,” said Hill, who worked
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