Jerry Markbreit facts for kids

Jerry Markbreit, born on March 23, 1935, was a famous American football referee. He worked in the National Football League (NFL) for 23 seasons, becoming one of the most recognized officials in the game. Markbreit spent 33 seasons officiating football games in total. Before joining the NFL, he worked college football games in the Big Ten Conference from 1965 to 1975. He joined the NFL in 1976 as a line judge and was promoted to head referee in his second year. His uniform number was 9.

During his 23 seasons in the NFL, which ended after the 1998 season, Markbreit was chosen for 25 important postseason games. These included two wild card games, 10 divisional games, and eight conference championships. He also officiated one Pro Bowl and an amazing four Super Bowls: Super Bowl XVII, Super Bowl XXI, Super Bowl XXVI, and Super Bowl XXIX. He was also an alternate referee for three other Super Bowls. To this day, he is the only NFL head referee to have officiated four Super Bowl games.

Until 2008, he wrote a weekly sports column for the Chicago Tribune during the football season.

Becoming a Referee

Jerry Markbreit started officiating football games in 1953. He began by working college fraternity games. He had tried to play college football at the University of Illinois, but he almost got seriously hurt several times.

Markbreit started his career as an official in 1957. He joined the Central Officials Association and began working public league and junior varsity games. By the late 1950s, he was officiating high school games. Some of these games even featured a young Dick Butkus, who would later become a famous football player.

Officiating in College Football

Markbreit officiated his first Big Ten college game on September 25, 1965. He was a back judge for a game between Northwestern and Indiana. He became a full-time back judge in the Big Ten in 1966. In 1968, he was promoted to referee. This happened after he took charge of a 1967 game between Missouri and Northwestern.

He was the back judge for a famous game on November 19, 1966. This game, known as the "Game of the Century," was between top-ranked Notre Dame and second-ranked Michigan State. It ended in a 10–10 tie. Markbreit was also the referee for the 1969 Ohio State vs. Michigan football game. In that game, Michigan upset Ohio State with a 24-12 win. He also refereed the 1972 Rose Bowl on New Year's Day 1972. In that game, Stanford beat Michigan 13–12, stopping the Wolverines from having a perfect season.

Joining the NFL

Just before the 1968 football season, Markbreit was offered a job with the NFL as a field judge. However, he turned it down. He felt he didn't have enough college experience to become a referee in the NFL at that time.

Markbreit joined the NFL as a line judge in 1976. He became a referee in 1977 after the retirement of long-time referee Tommy Bell. Bell had been Markbreit's crew chief during the 1976 season. The other officials on Bell's crew asked the NFL supervisor to keep the crew together. They said they would help Jerry learn the ropes, and the supervisor agreed.

Markbreit retired from officiating on the field after working a playoff game. This game was between the San Francisco 49ers and Atlanta Falcons on January 9, 1999.

Memorable Moments

Jerry Markbreit was involved in several famous and important moments during his NFL career.

The Holy Roller Play

Markbreit officiated the "Holy Roller" play on September 10, 1978. This was a game-winning play by the Oakland Raiders against the San Diego Chargers. With only 10 seconds left, Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler lost the ball. It rolled forward towards the San Diego goal line. Raiders tight end Dave Casper batted and kicked the ball into the end zone. He then fell on it for a game-tying touchdown as time ran out. The Raiders won the game 21–20.

Markbreit ruled that Stabler had fumbled the ball, not intentionally thrown it forward. The league supported his decision. Because of this play, a new rule was made. Now, only the player who fumbles the ball on offense can advance it on fourth down or in the last two minutes of a half. Among NFL officials, this is still known as the "Markbreit rule."

Ejecting Charles Martin

In November 1986, Markbreit was the referee at Soldier Field. The Green Bay Packers were playing the Chicago Bears. He ejected Packers defensive end Charles Martin. Martin had slammed Jim McMahon shoulder-first into the AstroTurf. This was Markbreit's first ejection as an NFL official.

Martin was suspended for two games by NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle. At the time, this was the longest suspension for an on-field incident. Years later, Markbreit said that Martin's hit was so far outside the rules of the game that ejection was the only choice. His action set a new standard. Any violent act not considered part of the game could lead to an ejection. Many people in the media and NFL executives felt this call helped Markbreit get the assignment to referee Super Bowl XXI two months later.

Super Bowl Coin Toss Confusion

At Super Bowl XVII, Markbreit was in charge of the coin toss. He got confused because both sides of the coin looked similar. One side had two helmets, and the other showed two players holding helmets. He mistakenly thought "heads" had landed. He had to talk briefly with head linesman Dale Hamer before correcting his call to "tails."

Replayed Kickoff

At Super Bowl XXVI, the Buffalo Bills' Brad Daluiso kicked off before Markbreit blew his whistle. Markbreit had not yet signaled that the kick could be made. The kickoff had to be replayed, and the second attempt went smoothly.

Life After Officiating

After retiring as an active official, Markbreit remained involved with the NFL. He served as an instant replay official for two years. Later, he worked as an associate supervisor and head trainer for NFL referees.

Outside of football, he worked in advertising sales for Where Magazine. He also spent many years as a trade and barter manager for 3M.

Books by Markbreit

• The Armchair Referee—500 Questions and Answers about Football (ISBN: 0-385-08089-1)
• Born to Referee: My Life on the Gridiron (ISBN: 0-688-07938-5)
• Last Call: Memoirs of an NFL Referee (ISBN: 1-58382-030-2)

Quotes

• "There's no such thing as perfection. Mistakes happen. Officials are so hard on themselves. When they make a mistake, nobody feels worse than they do."
• "I had several big-time mistakes. I felt at the time that it happened, 'Why am I here?' You're heartsick about a call that you made. You want everything to be perfect. But it's not a perfect science. There's nothing perfect."
• "I'm probably the only Jewish man who knows the Catholic mass by heart, both in English and Latin.” Markbreit wrote in his memoir that he attended Catholic mass before every game. He did this out of respect for veteran back judge Tom Kelleher, who was on the same crew with Markbreit from 1976 to 1986.

See also

• List of Jews in sports (non-players)