Referee Jerome Boger retires from the NFL

Posted by Josh Alper on March 2, 2023, 4:11 PM EST
Detroit Lions vs Jacksonville Jaguars
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The NFL will be losing an experienced referee ahead of the 2023 season.

The league announced that Jerome Boger is retiring. Boger entered the league as a line judge in 2004 and was named a referee ahead of the 2006 season.

Boger worked one Super Bowl — XLVII in New Orleans between the Ravens and 49ers — and six other postseason games during his NFL career.

Boger is the only referee to announce his retirement since the end of the 2022 season, but nine other officials will be stepping down. That group includes a pair of brothers — down judge Jerry Bergman and line judge Jeff Bergman — as well as line judge Walt Coleman IV, back judge Steven Patrick, down judge Mark Hittner, field judge Michael Banks, side judge Jeff Lamberth, back judge Keith Ferguson, and back judge Perry Paganelli.

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57 responses to “Referee Jerome Boger retires from the NFL”

  1. Great news!

    Now, someone dose him with some truth syrum so we can learn about how deep these games go in terms of Goodell instruction before games are played.

  3. Sixteen years is impressive. That man made some of the worst calls I’ve ever seen

  6. Worth about a 10% drop in bad calls next year…Every time I see this guy and Vinovich I think, yeah officiating is a hard job but g-d@mn

  8. The level of NFL officiating immediately just got better. Bogar was awful. Addition by subtraction.

  10. He earned 6 postseason games in 19 years? Must have been very low rated every year.

  12. Good riddance. One of the worst officials ever – he was so bad he would make up penalties that even the TV announcers couldn’t see.

  14. Weird people celebrating like they’re going to replace him with someone better.

  17. They should all retire and start from scratch. The replacements were better than these overpaid, underworked pretenders.

  18. Good, amazing how someone so worthless at their job hasn’t been fired before then. Well, except weather people.

  21. The NFL claims the officials are awarded post season games based on their regular season grading system. The fact Boger worked 6 playoffs games and a SB proves their “grading system” is a scam.The NFL gets and does what it wants when it comes to officiating.

  22. My favorite Boger call? Inadvertent whistle in the LV-Cin playoff game. The man just flat out said it didn’t happen even though every player and fan in the stadium plus everyone watching heard it. That’s just incompetence.

  27. Tom Brady needs to send him a huge retirement gift. After all, Boger gave him an extended career of made-up Roughing calls. Especially the Bucs – Atlanta game Week 5. I am not a fan of either team, but the most blatant nonsense ever. No flag and then Tom turns to him and the Yellow Hanky comes out keeping the Falcons comeback from 21 pts down safe. Literally one of the worst Refs ever. Walt Coleman does have him beat (Tuck Rule). Good Riddance!

  31. I didn’t think part-timers officially retired. I thought they just stopped coming in and one day someone noticed he’s not there anymore

  32. So many people complaining about Boger and all the other refs. Take into account just how many rules they need to memorize and then add to that the split second calls they have to make and the speed of the game (not to mention everyone expecting them to have eyes in the back of their head). I bet 99% of the people complaining would quit after one quarter if they ever had the chance to ref a game.

  33. Could not stand that guy, wishy washy ticky tact, dude was all over the place, just a bad ref.

  34. I couldn’t wait to see the comments after reading this article, cuz I knew there would not be one kind word about this guy. LOL
    Best wishes Jerome

  35. I wonder how many people realize that the Referee merely communicates most infractions in the game and isn’t actually calling them.

  37. Most of these refs are awful. I agree with the other commenter who said we should fire all of them start from scratch

  38. Now you’ll find him on tv somewhere.

    —-

    It won’t be as a football rules analyst… you have to know the rules for that gig.

  40. One of those refs that always seemed to be in the middle of bad calls.The successor to Jeff Triplett.

  43. And not a season too soon. 16 years of the worst calls fans have endured by this clown – how he managed to become a Head Referee is beyond me!

  45. Wow Patrick Mahomes is going to have to pay someone else to buy more Super Bowls. At least he still has Carl Cheffers.

  46. Good riddance, he was awful. The NFL needs to clean out their officiating personnel. Everyone in the NFL has to perform at a certain level or be fired, but the officials get a free pass.

  48. GOOD RIDDANCE!

    Not calling a 3 second hold AND pass interference on Jimmy Smith cost the Niners their Ring. It was obvious which way the refs were supposed to call the game when a Ravens db literally chucked a ref from a pile with no consequence. (not too mention 3 holds on Kickoff return or Culliver’s phantom pi to set up the ravens’ deciding 3pts).

    fast forward to last 2 Super Bowls were game was decided on the lamest of contact (bradburry held for a millisecond, logan’s d was perfect on kupp) ….compare that to the garbage that jimmy smith pulled off to “win” that game!

  49. I’m sure he’s a good guy but his nonchalant calls in big time situations rubbed some the wrong way. As a Packer fan thank you but just saying what other fanbases are probably thinking

  51. A few years ago Boger was easily the worst ref in the league. But now the rest of the pack stinks SO badly that it’s impossible to say that any one ref or crew is worse than another – they’re ALL unacceptably horrible.

  52. Retired? Ok, NFL. You finally got rid of him and forced him out. Thank you!!!!!

  54. One of the worst officials ever. Always cringed when he called our games. I’ll join the list of folks here saying good riddance.

  55. I didn’t recognize the name so I looked him up. I loved watching this guy, he’s given my wife and I many laughs over the years.

  56. The fact that this makes the news is problematic. Refs have become part of the game and it’s a huge issue for the NFL even if they don’t care.

  57. Since the referee is the person facing the camera and announcing the penalty, he gets the blame for every bad call his crew makes. He can’t order other guys to pick up a bad flag in an area of the field he’s not watching.

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