NFL Names Vice President Carl Johnson First Full-Time Official

Carl Johnson will become the first full-time field official in the National Football League, moving from his job as vice president of officiating after the Super Bowl title game.

Johnson is the first person hired for full-time positions created this season by the labor agreement with the NFL Referees Association following a lockout, the league said in a news release.

In his front-office position, he was involved with overseeing replacements when the league locked out its regular officials at the start of this season. Many of the replacements were criticized by players, coaches and news media members for a lack of knowledge of the rules and inconsistent calls on the field.

“Carl Johnson’s experience on the field and in New York made him uniquely qualified to help implement the new program of a limited number of full-time game officials,” Ray Anderson, the NFL’s executive vice-president of football operations, said in a news release.

Johnson, who joined the NFL’s front office as head of officiating in 2010, previously spent nine seasons as a line judge, and worked the Super Bowl between the New York Giants and New England Patriots after the 2007 season.

Johnson, who will be based in Louisiana with his family, will help train and develop other officials, scout for new hires and assist the league’s Competition Committee, which makes the rules, the NFL said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Kuriloff in New York at akuriloff@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net