NFL fires a field judge in the middle of the season

[NAS]

First time in the SB era an official has been fired during the season

 

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/25082276/nfl-fires-judge-hugo-cruz-effective-immediately

 

The NFL has taken the highly unusual step of firing down judge Hugo Cruz for performance reasons, sources confirmed to ESPN on Thursday.

Cruz last worked in Week 6 and is no longer an NFL employee.

Cruz, who joined the NFL in 2015, was responsible for one high-profile mistake this season. He missed an obvious false start by Los Angeles Chargers left tackle Russell Okung on a scoring play in Week 6 against the Cleveland Browns. He did not work in Week 7.

Otherwise, the details of the league's decision -- including other mistakes Cruz is presumed to have made -- are unknown. An NFL spokesman declined to comment and representatives of the NFL Referee Association did not respond to a request for comment.

 

 

The news was first reported by FootballZebras.com, which tracks college and pro football officiating trends. According to the website, the NFL has never fired an official in-season during the Super Bowl era because of performance.

Sources reached by ESPN insisted there was no indication that Cruz committed an off-field mistake or that his firing was in any way disciplinary.

The NFL grades officials on their performance on every play of every game. The league has occasionally suspended or re-assigned officials for mistakes of game administration, but it evaluates their careers on a yearly basis by placing each in one of three tiers.

Tier I is for the top performers, Tier II is for mid-level grades and Tier III is for the lowest-performing officials in a given year. Historically, two consecutive seasons in the third tier makes an official vulnerable to termination.

That system is designed to prevent instant evaluations based on a single mistake or a series of closely-timed mistakes.

The NFL's quick decision on Cruz will send shock waves through the officiating ranks. Officials who once could be assured that their season would be evaluated through a larger lens will now be left to wonder if they could receive a career-ending phone call after one bad game

[tondi]

Must be alot more to the story than one missed call. 

[Bartin]

That seriously might have been the worst call(or no-call really) I've ever seen. That lineman jumped a good second early.

[Bartin]

Just now, tondi said:

Must be alot more to the story than one missed call. 

I'm sure it was a pattern of poor grading then that call was the straw that broke the camel's back. Just horrendously bad.

[hepcat]

Was he on the ref crew for any Panthers games?

[Pimpdaddy]

...now if they could get rid of either or both cockhuli's...id be happy. or, the ahole that didn't give Reid the pick....

[Bartin]

Just now, Pimpdaddy said:

...now if they could get rid of either or both cockhuli's...id be happy. or, the ahole that didn't give Reid the pick....

Ed already retired. His son, Shawn, might be on thin ice after picking up the flag on the Mayfield headshot and announcing that he could still be hit in the head since he was a runner last week.

[uncfan888]

Need to fire ol cletus

[Chaos]

Hugo a scapegoat for the shitty rules that are difficult to enforce.  Not false starts obviously but catch rule, roughing the passer, etc.  if Jerome Boger can be one of 15 or so head NFL referees in the world, there’s a problem.  

[JawnyBlaze]

There’s no way it was just for on field performance if Boger still has a job. 

[Kuhndog94]

Wish they would've fired Clete Blakeman mid superbowl

 

[GRWatcher]

 

Was he on the ref crew for any Panthers games?

No. Those he did ref:

Week 1 - Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers

Week 2 - Oakland Raiders at Denver Broncos

Week 3 - San Francisco 49ers at Kansas City Chiefs

Week 5 - Washington Redskins at New Orleans Saints

Week 6 - Los Angeles Chargers at Cleveland Browns

[arbnranger]

1 hour ago, Kuhndog94 said:

Wish they would've fired Clete Blakeman mid superbowl

 

Totally off topic, anytime I hear that name I think of Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose. 

Anybody tracking on that ?

 

[LinvilleGorge]

Eith all the terrible refs in the league, you gotta think there's something more to this than just poor calls if this the first time this has happened in the SB era. Gotta wonder if he was getting bought off by gambling interests or something along those lines.