During the November 4 Colts-Dolphins game, referee Tony Corrente yelled an obscenity at one of his fellow referees. Corrente is far from the first person to yell an obscenity at a co-worker, but Corrente made one big mistake: He forgot to turn his microphone off.
That meant all the fans in the stands and the television audience heard Corrente swear, and as a result, the NFL has decided that Corrente won’t be paid for the game.
NFL V.P. of Officiating Carl Johnson has confirmed that he docked Corrente his game check, calling Corrente’s language “inappropriate for a game official.”
Working as an NFL official is a high-stress job, and almost everyone drops a few bad words when under stress. So I have some sympathy for Corrente here. But the reality is that the NFL will always hold its officials to a high standard of conduct, and the NFL and its TV partners don’t want swear words going out over the air. So it’s not surprising that Corrente is paying for this mistake. We can probably assume he won’t make that mistake again.