Becoming a Prepared Football Official

The CFO website , which stands for college football officiating, is a tremendous site for every official no matter if you are just starting college football, or a seasoned pro. The CFO website can also be good for high school officials if you are actively thinking about rule changes between the college and high school games. If you want a great book on the differences between college (NCAA) and high school (NFHS) I highly recommend the newest edition of “Football Rule Differences” by Paul Whiteside, George Demetriou and Jeffrey Stern. The book does a great job of breaking down all the differences in a way that makes sense. Find the most recent book here .  Anyways, back to the CFO website. They post weekly quizzes during the football season to help test your rules knowledge. They will usually post between five and ten quizzes during the offseason to keep officials fresh on the rules. But beyond the rules, they offer some of the best, or most helpful, videos out there. The vide...

For current officials, armchair officials and people who just like to keep up on the happenings of officiating, especially at the NFL level, Football Zebras is a very informational blog site. The site has tons of different areas to explore such as rules school, film study, rules and mechanics. The rules school does a great job of showing NFL rules in a fun interactive quiz way. Questions usually get posted after controversial calls on a Sunday game and it helps bring clarity for why the call was or was not made. No matter what level of official you are, it is a great way to test your rules knowledge. The film study section within Football Zebras is a great way for people to visually learn the rules. Everyone who officiates, especially football, knows the importance of watching film. You can read a rule in a rule book 100 times, and yet when you see it out on the field you may not remember those words from the rule book. Watching a video lets you process it as if you just saw t...