efore making the decision to become a back judge, an official needs to understand the “baggage” that goes with the position. A respected, major-college back judge once termed the experience of back judge for a football game as “fifty-nine minutes of boredom and one minute of sheer terror!” There is some truth to that. In a game with two teams running offenses of the “three yards and a cloud of dust” variety, the back judge will rarely see the ball and will have a hard time remaining focused. If you have aspirations of advancing to a college conference, a little research will show you that rarely are officials advanced from the back judge position. Many more come from the other four positions in a five-man crew, with emphasis on the two wing officials. If you can get past these hang-ups, back judge is a great position from which to officiate a football game.

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