Last Call: Memoirs of an NFL Referee

by Alan Steinberg, Alan Steinberg

Drawing on his more than thirty years of experience (including a record four Super Bowls) as the NFL's top referee, Jerry Markbreit describes the hard-hitting, fast-paced NFL action from a perspective few others can match. Filled with humorous anecdotes as well as his opinions on controversial subjects and players and coaches, this book is the first comprehensive look at pro football officiating from the official's point of view -- and Markbreit's homage to the sport he has helped define.

Genres: Football, Sports

234 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Kyle]

A solid and enjoyable book about mid to late 20th Century American football and the life of a NFL official great.

Background: I have judged various school and academic events, but I've never officiated anything. However, I've been a NFL fan since a kid, and for a few years I thought wouldn't it be great to read about the game from an official's point of view - the folks who hardly receive any accolades when a game goes well, but receive much of the blame when things don't go the way the fans want for their team. Do any diehard fans look objectively at good calls against their team? I digress. About the book:

Things I loved:
*Markbreit's sense of humor, often self-effacing (there's even a "Glossary of Yiddish Markbreitisms").
*Markbriet tracing his officiating career from public league, high school, NCAA & Big Ten Conference, to the NFL (line judge to referee). I especially enjoyed the many references to Iowa football.
*Markbreit's interactions with big name players and coaches, such as Dick Butkus, John Elway, Jim McMahon, Bill Walsh, etc.
*Markbreit's discussion of instant replay. How the camera can catch things the eye doesn't see and vice versa.

Something that could have been better: less mechanical errors. These were more common in the first half of the book. Some patterns made me wonder if some were due to word processing program/conversion errors. I made many highlights. Maybe I'll send them to the publisher? :-)

The errors weren't enough to impact my rating of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about the *part time* career of a NFL official. Markbreit also worked for 3M in Chicago for 35 years, including while he was a NFL official. The former was a job, the latter was a passion; Markbreit made me feel the passion. I give this book a solid four stars.

[Carly]

This is exactly what I wanted - an account of the life of a referee. The stories Markbreit shares are so different - they come from the point if view of the ref, not from watching on TV or the players perspective. It's a whole different ball game!

[Jeff Koeppen]

I read this book a few years ago after it was lent to me. I'm not a huge NFL fan but it was interesting to read a long-time ref describe how hard it is to officiate the game with all the rules and judgement calls.

[Paden Alie]

Was a great insight into the lives of one of the more popular NFL referees. As an official myself - I appreciated seeing the things behind the curtain during a different era. Particularly found the information about how he managed family while working a crazy referee schedule interesting.

[Dlchambers]

Markbreit's massive ego spoils what could have been an entertaining book. Read Madden's "Hey, I wrote a book!" instead.

[Randall]

Not really all that interesting, even to someone fairly 'into' officiating. Eventually I'll find the book from this realm that really hits the mark. This wasn't it.