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What is the average NFL referee salary, and are refs paid more for the Super Bowl?
It’s well known that the National Football League’s star athletes make tens of millions of dollars a year. NFL referee salaries, on the other hand, are more elusive. Certainly, they earn considerably less than the players, despite the tremendous amount of pressure they’re under to make game-deciding calls, that could influence the outcome of the 2024 Super Bowl.
Referee pay is governed by a collective bargaining agreement between the NFL Referees Association (NFLRA) — the union that represents them — and the NFL.
The latest contract, signed by both parties in September 2019, is effective through May 2026, but is not publicly available.
Previous agreements between the union and the league, however, provide a sense of how much the officials charged with adjudicating and enforcing the rules of the game earn for their work.
Not surprisingly, it pales in comparison to the players with whom they share the field.
How much do NFL referees make?
How much does an NFL referee make? In 2019, under the agreement that was to expire in May 2020, game officials earned an average salary of $205,000, according to a post on the latest NFL referee salary agreement from Football Zebras, a site focused on football referees. In 2011, under the preceding contract, officials earned $149,000, on average. That means they received a nearly 38% bump in pay from one contract to the next.
NFL referees typically officiate 19 games per season, including preseason matchups and clinics.
Do NFL referees get paid more money for the Super Bowl?
A Super Bowl referee’s pay is supplementary to a regular season NFL football referee salary. Refs assigned to playoff games and the Super Bowl “are paid from a separate pool” on top of their regular salaries, according to the site.
NFLRA executive director Scott Green did not immediately respond to CBS MoneyWatch’s request for comment on the current contract between the union and the NFL.
The NFL also did not respond to CBS MoneyWatch’s request for comment on referee pay.
To be an NFL game official, candidates must have at least 10 years’ experience officiating football games, according to the league’s website. That should include at least five years refereeing “major college games.”
The NFL runs a referee development program, called the Mackie Development Program, that provides a pathway for college football refs to step up to the national league.
Program participants attend training camps, officiate NFL preseason games and, upon completion, move up to the NFL if they are deemed fit to officiate at the highest level of the sport.
More than 120 officials in black-and-white shirts are currently working as referees, umpires or judges in the NFL.
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New documentary explores the private life of “Superman” icon Christopher Reeve
Long before comic book characters dominated movie screens, actor Christopher Reeve made the world believes in superheroes with the 1978 classic “Superman.”
Reeve died in 2004, nearly a decade after an accident re-shaped his life. “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” is using interviews with family and friends and never-before-seen home videos to explore his real-life heroism.
Reeve started his career on the stage, studying at the prestigious Juilliard School and living with comedian Robin Williams. The pair had a friendship that was “more like a brotherhood,” said Reeve’s son Matthew. Reeve was in awe of Williams’ energy and versatility, Matthew Reeve said, but audiences quickly clued into Reeve’s own star power when he took on the role of the Man of Steel.
To his children, though, he “was just dad,” Matthew Reeve said. The documentary explores how Matthew Reeve and his sister Alexandra Reeve Givens grew up watching their dad take the stage as Superman. “Super/Man” also reveals their heartbreak over their parents’ breakup and the joy they found when Reeve re-married. He tied the knot with Dana Reeve in 1992, and the pair welcomed another child, William Reeve, later that year.
“Dana was sunshine,” Alexandra Reeve Givens recalled. “She just brought joy with her wherever she was and could find it even in the darkest moments.”
Those dark moments came suddenly, when in 1995, a near-fatal horseback riding accident left Reeve paralyzed from the neck down. The documentary allows viewers to see, for the first time, what went on out of the public’s view. Reeve can be heard talking about how he “ruined (his) life and everybody else’s,” but in a touching moment, old friend Robin Williams is seen visiting him in the hospital.
“Robin showed him ‘Hey, you’re still you,'” Alexandra Reeve Givens said. “‘You still have this foundation of friendship and people around you, who adore you. And you’re going to find those fun moments in life again.'”
That support from friends and family re-ignited Reeve’s legacy of activism. He made appearances at the Democratic National Convention and the 68th Academy Awards in 1996, about a year after the accident. Matthew Reeve said watching his father address his industry peers at the Oscars was “one of (his) most proud moments.”
“It was just a production for him to get out of bed every morning, let alone get across the country and go out in public for the first time,” Matthew Reeve said. “It was a big deal. It was a big deal to him, but it was also a big deal to the entire disability community. We stayed up in London till like three in the morning to watch that live. It’s a fond memory.”
Reeve also went on to launch what would become the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which is dedicated to advancing research into spiral cord injury and help individuals and families impacted by paralysis. It was his dad’s mission to find a cure, Matthew Reeve said, while his stepmother wanted to focus on improving the lives of paralyzed people and their families. The foundation and Reeve’s platform helped bring unprecedented attention and funding to spinal cord injury research.
Reeve even kept acting and realized his lifelong dream of directing with the 1997 HBO movie “In the Gloaming.” Reeve died in 2004 from heart failure at 52.
“There is a huge amount of great actors and actresses out there, where their filmography might be amazing and what they achieve on a cultural level might be amazing, but have they actually achieved anything really as a human that moves the needle for our society?” said filmmaker Ian Bonhote, who made the documentary with Peter Ettedgui. “And Chris has done both things.”
“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” will open in theaters on Friday, Oct. 11.
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