Former NFL officials: League could face issues in 2018 with 4 refs retiring

Four referees announced their retirement from the NFL this offseason, and other former officials are speaking out on what that means for the league.

Ed Hochuli and Jeff Triplette retired shortly after the conclusion of the 2017 season, with the latter joining ESPN as a rules analyst. Terry McAulay also stepped away from officiating, as did Gene Steratore, moving on to analyst jobs at Sunday Night Football and CBS, respectively. The NFL hired four new referees to replace the veteran quartet.

There's a belief among former officials that the recent retirement wave could make the job even more challenging in 2018.

"I've never been involved in a season where you went with four new referees, and four referees that really haven't been around the league that long," former NFL head of officiating Mike Pereira told Ben Volin of the Boston Globe. "And first-year referees aren't eligible for playoffs, so you're going to dig deeper into the remaining stash of referees. That could create a problem, too."

In addition to the four departing referees, five other officials retired this offseason. Current referees Walt Anderson, Walt Coleman, Pete Morelli, and Tony Corrente are believed to be on their way out within the next couple of years as well, according to Volin.

"They've got some big problems, because they don't have the experienced officials to fill in for the four referees they lost," Jim Daopoulos, who was in the NFL officiating department for 23 years, told Volin. "They just don't have that many good, strong, veteran officials that can step in there and help a young referee. This is just a problem they've had over the years, and they haven't done a good job of preparing for this turnover."

The NFL implemented a handful of rule alterations for 2018, leading Pereira and Daopoulos to believe there could be a number of controversial situations during games this fall under inexperienced officials.