# Why wouldn't the NFL just hire officials/refs as full-time employees? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 10, 2019, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-the-nfl-just-hire-officials-refs-as-full-time-employees/827501 "2019-01-10T03:52:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-the-nfl-just-hire-officials-refs-as-full-time-employees/827501/1 "2019-01-10T03:52:31Z")
Seeing that all the refs and officials have other side occupations seems like they aren’t fully mentally focused on the job. Maybe they do still pull it off anyway, but why not just hire and pay them all full-time and have them focus their work lives around that one job only, officiating? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-the-nfl-just-hire-officials-refs-as-full-time-employees/827501/2 "2019-01-10T04:26:00Z")
Well, I didn’t know that they weren’t full-time (but then, I don’t follow football all that closely), so in my attempt to confirm that this was accurate I found the [Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_(American_football)#Employment_status). > [@](#): > > Because their regular season spans only 17 weeks, the NFL is one of only two major sports leagues in the United States that only pay their officials on a contract basis as opposed to being full-time salaried employees, the other being Major League Soccer. Advantages to this system include being able to eliminate unqualified officials simply by not offering them a contract the following season, where terminating full-time employees would require them to show cause. Critics argue that full-time officials would be free from the distractions of a second job, but proponents of part-time officials point out that the NFL would lose a number of qualified officials because many of them are owners, presidents, or CEOs of various companies. Proponents also argue that there is only one game per week and the regular season is only four months long, and that having full-time officials does not necessarily guarantee that they will make fewer officiating mistakes. The level of training and review in which NFL officials participate makes additional time redundant. Is that enough of an answer to your question? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-the-nfl-just-hire-officials-refs-as-full-time-employees/827501/3 "2019-01-10T04:27:40Z")
You’re too late. The NFL already has some full-time refs. About a fourth of their refs are full-time, IIRC. Many of the part-time refs work roughly full-time hours (40 hours per week) during football season. They go do other jobs after the Super Bowl and come back during the summer before the season starts up again. To be fair, this is a relatively recent change. They hired a bunch of their part-time refs on as full-time last year, then hired a few more this year. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-the-nfl-just-hire-officials-refs-as-full-time-employees/827501/4 "2019-01-10T21:35:25Z")
What do the full-time officials do during the off season? Two thirds of the year is an awful lot of time off. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-the-nfl-just-hire-officials-refs-as-full-time-employees/827501/5 "2019-01-10T23:05:43Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What do the full-time officials do during the off season? Two thirds of the year is an awful lot of time off. It’s more like 1/2 the year, but the point is still there. Indeed even during the 1/2 the year there are games to referee, it hardly seems like there are 40 hours of work per week for all of the officials.