How come there has never been a retired referee as an announcer?

Has there ever been one?
I always thought that a ref could give a lot of remarkable insight into game.
Imagine Jerry Markbreit or someone like that in the booth giving color commentary.
I wonder if the NFL frowns on that sort of thing.

Has there ever been one?
I always thought that a ref could give a lot of remarkable insight into game.
Imagine Jerry Markbreit or someone like that in the booth giving color commentary.
I wonder if the NFL frowns on that sort of thing.

Well FOX does have Mike Perirea(sp?) as an on call personality. He offers some good insights but not really anything super fascinating.

Well FOX does have Mike Perirea(sp?) as an on call personality. He offers some good insights but not really anything super fascinating.

I was going to mention Mike Periera (sp?) too. I like him a lot more when he explains calls in the booth, I used to rag on him constantly for toe'ing the company line when he was VP of Officiating. When he was in the NFL offices he used to always backup his refs no matter how obviously bad a call looked, and I assume it's probably because he wanted to show a united front even if he was chastising refs behind closed doors. I just feel like he's a lot more open now that he's in the booth, for instance you never would've heard him trashing Vick when he was in the league office.

Well FOX does have Mike Perirea(sp?) as an on call personality. He offers some good insights but not really anything super fascinating.

Uh, Mike Periea. Or at least thats what I used to say. When he worked for NFLN he always seemed to take the refs side, now that he works for Fox I see him more willing to disagree with the calls.

Does it have anything to do possibly some kind of privacy/secrecy act, or something along the lines of like a players association for referees?

What I mean is, a guy like Ed Hoculi becomes an announcer, and during a game he says something like "I tell you what joe when I was reffing, i really didn't like Michael Vick so i always kind of turned my head when they would hit him", etc...

Not making a joke here, i always assumed they protect everything the refs do behind closed doors so they would never let an ex-ref become a commentator because of stuff like I mentioned.

I was going to mention Mike Periera (sp?) too. I like him a lot more when he explains calls in the booth, I used to rag on him constantly for toe'ing the company line when he was VP of Officiating. When he was in the NFL offices he used to always backup his refs no matter how obviously bad a call looked, and I assume it's probably because he wanted to show a united front even if he was chastising refs behind closed doors. I just feel like he's a lot more open now that he's in the booth, for instance you never would've heard him trashing Vick when he was in the league office.

Joining an organization seems to have a behavioral impact on the joiner, i.e Smoot defending ESPN. (:D)

:) I defend what deserves to be defended. When not deserved...I keep quiet. Referees wouldn't be all that great as color commentators because they are not involved with the team during the week when it comes to practice, and strategy etc. They would have limited knowledge to offer

When do they ever get it right, anyway? DUH! :)

I would think the refs hear and see a lot of things that other people in the game don't. There's always a lot of pleading whining to the refs, not to mention coaches going ballistic. You never get to here about that stuff.

How come you never see baby squirrels?