Sports
Don Willard will referee two NFL games on the same Sunday as air travel chaos forces the league to shuffle its officials
Flight troubles left the NFL scrambling for referees. Don Willard will run Dolphins-Colts then drive to Cincinnati for Sunday Night Football.
NFL referees usually work one game a weekend. Don Willard is about to work two in one day.
The NFL changed its Week 10 officiating assignments on Saturday after Friday's nationwide ground stop left air travel in a mess. The league moved officials to games within driving distance of their homes.
That puts three backup referees in charge of crews on Sunday. Willard will lead Dolphins-Colts in Indianapolis at noon Central. He will then make the roughly 110-mile drive to Cincinnati to referee Steelers-Bengals on Sunday Night Football at 7:20 p.m. Central.
What the league said
"Due to the ongoing nationwide impact to air travel this weekend, the NFL has adjusted its officiating assignments for Week 10 games, reassigning officials to games within driving distance of their hometowns," the league said in a statement.
The NFL said each of its 17 officiating crews has a backup referee who trains all year to step into the role if needed.
Who is working where
Umpire Duane Heydt will referee Panthers-Saints in New Orleans. Umpire Barry Anderson will referee Jaguars-Titans in Nashville.
Shawn Smith had been set to referee Panthers-Saints. Alex Moore had Jaguars-Titans, Carl Cheffers had Dolphins-Colts and Clete Blakeman had Steelers-Bengals. The league did not say what those four will do this weekend.
A rare double shift
A head referee working two NFL games on the same day is believed to be a first.
Willard normally works as a side judge on Scott Novak's crew. That crew had the weekend off, so he was not scheduled to work at all.
He has nine years of NFL experience as a side judge. Before the NFL he worked as a side judge and referee in the Big Ten. His full-time job is physical therapist.
Big stakes Sunday night
Pittsburgh and Cincinnati are fighting for the AFC North title. Now the man in the white hat will be finishing his second game of the day.
The travel trouble is not over. The FAA stopped departing U.S. flights for more than four hours Friday afternoon after what Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called a communications equipment failure in air traffic control.
About 9,000 U.S. flights were canceled Friday. More than 3,700 more were canceled by Saturday morning.
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