NFL Referees Association executive director Jim Quirk is out. Unless he isn’t.
Ben Austro of FootballZebras.com reported on Friday that Quirk is leaving the position, citing multiple unnamed officiating sources. A text from PFT to one specific officiating source quickly obtained confirmation of the report.
In response, the NFL Referees Association says that Quirk is going nowhere.
“Jim Quirk continues to be the Executive Director of the NFLRA and such irresponsible reporting is both wrong and mean spirited,” NFL Referees Association spokesperson and legal counsel Mike Arnold said in a press release. “No one in the leadership of the NFLRA was contacted concerning this matter, and had any responsible journalist done so before reporting it, this erroneous report could have been avoided.”
The release from the NFLRA says nothing about concerns regarding Quirk’s leadership of the union, based on either his son’s role as an NFL back judge or the comments Quirk issued last season after the officials’ handling of the Panthers-Giants game, which prompted referee Terry McAulay to cease his involvement in union activities.
If we’d known about the on-the-record denial (and, frankly, if the NFLRA had a habit of responding to requests for comment, a request for comment definitely would have been made), the story would have been that FootballZebras.com is reporting that Quirk is out, that others connected to the NFLRA claim Quirk is out, that Quirk denies it, and that the annual meeting of the NFLRA to be held later this month could become very interesting.
So, to summarize, FootballZebras.com is reporting that Quirk is out (its item reporting that Quirk is out has not been revised or updated), others connected to the NFLRA claimed as of Friday night that Quirk is out, Quirk has denied it, and the annual meeting of the NFLRA to be held later this month could become very interesting.