What are Reasons you shouldn’t be Officiating for?

Early on, I went through some reasons that people should decide to officiate football. However, there are also some reasons people shouldn’t choose to officiate. The main two reasons you should not let yourself take the leap and become a football official is so that you can officiate in the NFL and so you can make good money.

While those things may happen to some people, it is EXTREMLY rare. When you think of all of the thousands upon thousands of football officials at every level across the country, there are only about 125 NFL officials in the whole world! Anyone who is officiating to make it to the NFL, they may want to look at the percent chance and just buy a lottery ticket instead! Even making it to be an official in the Big 10 is extremely rare.

Additionally, people that decide to officiate to make a lot of money because they heard how much some professional officials make, they may be in for a rude awakening. Yes, most of the time officials get paid nice amounts for the game, but if you have to drive between 2 and 6 hours to your game, possibly stay the night, and have a someone at home waiting for you, those Friday nights and Saturdays can feel quite long and not for much.

Ultimately, just like any job, you should love what you do. For football officials, you should love the game of football and going out on the field and feeling a sense of responsibility for ensuring the game is safe and fair. If you don’t love what you do, you will never make it for a long time in anything you do, especially officiating which can require lots of travel.

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