Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Jix Nix, receiver for the 49ers in 1950 and the 1951 Saskatchewan Roughriders before transitioning to a back judge for 10 seasons, died April 12 at the age of 95. Nix was the last living NFL official from the 1950s. He and the late Jim Tunney were the last living officials to work the weekend of the...

Jim Tunney, a three-time Super Bowl referee and perennial Hall of Fame nominee, known simply as "the Dean of Referees," died December 12 at the age of 95.

https://www.footballzebras.com/2024/12/ ... ies-at-95/

Shorty Ray never officiated in the NFL, however, so I wouldn't go that far to say he was the first official. The HOF liked to trot his name out to deflect the fact there was no official in the Hall prior to McNally. Ray was also, from what I can discern, incorrectly identified as the "superviso...

Here's the graphic that was mentioned that really shows how out of step Canton is. And Naismith is actually up to 17 now.

What other officials do you think belongs in canton along with Art McNally the only one i can think of off my head would be Jim Tunney So I started this after I started to lobby hard for Art McNally, realizing that there were beat writers that could push their local interest, but there wasn't an eq...

I've been keeping an eye on the contributor category for some time with my coverage of officiating. It doesn't surprise me that no officials made it to the shortlist. Again. But this has to be the worst list they have ever put out for the category. It seems this will just play out as the seniors and...

The 1984 tiebreakers were head-to-head, conference W-L, common games W-L, net points in conference games, net points in all games, strength of schedule, and net touchdowns. With no H2H, the conference win percentage became the tiebreaker. Here are the tiebreakers broken down by years: https://www.qu...

When the NFL canceled the Bills-Chiefs game last year, the gamebook was actually published. A day or so after, they wiped all the stats off the GSIS and deleted the gamebook. I tried looking for any link to the old gamebook or reconstructing the URL, and have come up empty. I checked the 2022 PFRA g...

Regarding intercity rivalries in the same division or conference. This was addressed when there was a 3-team sweepstakes for a shared venue in the L.A. market between St. Louis, San Diego, and Oakland. It was essentially a guaranteed win for the Rams, because there was talk about a realignment if th...

The rule changed slightly right after the 1954 NFLCG (well, not counting the Pro Bowl). It still was not down by contact, as a grasp was required, but didn't require the grasp to be held through to the ground. So 7-7-1-1 (a) (3) and (4) were replaced with the following: (3) Touches ground with any p...