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Jeff Triplette

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Jeff Triplette
Born (1951-03-12) March 12, 1951 (age 73)
Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.
OccupationNFL official (1996–2017)

Jeff Triplette (born March 12, 1951) is a former American football official in the National Football League (NFL) from the 1996 season through the 2017 season. He wore uniform number 42.

Personal life

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Triplette is a retired Army Reserve colonel. He was awarded the Bronze Star for actions in the Persian Gulf War while serving in the North Carolina Army National Guard.

In January 2007, Triplette was named president and chief operating officer of FNC, Inc., a provider of collateral management technology to the nation's largest mortgage lenders. Before joining FNC, he was vice president for risk management at Duke Energy, a large energy company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.[1]

From March 2013 to June 2019, Triplette served as president and CEO of ArbiterSports, creator of athletic event management software designed to assist in assigning officials to athletic events.[2]

Officiating career

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Triplette joined the NFL as a field judge in 1996, then switched to back judge in 1998 after the NFL swapped position titles that season, and became a referee in 1999 after four-time Super Bowl referee Jerry Markbreit announced his retirement.[3] He was the alternate referee of Super Bowl XLI, which was held on February 4, 2007, in Miami.

On December 19, 1999, Triplette accidentally hit the Cleveland Browns' Orlando Brown in the eye with a penalty flag weighed with ball bearings.[4] Video shows that Triplette immediately apologized to Brown, who was then tended to by the medical staff. Brown attempted to rejoin the team on the field a few minutes later, but Triplette prevented him from entering for the next play per NFL rules which stipulate that if a player incurs an injury timeout he must sit out the next play. Brown shoved Triplette to the ground and was ejected. Initially the NFL suspended Brown indefinitely,[5] but lifted the suspension when it was learned that the flag had temporarily blinded him.[6] As a result of the incident, the practice of officials using flags weighted with ball bearings was discontinued in favor of other material. In addition, officials are now only instructed to throw a flag at the spot of the foul if they need to mark it as a possible spot for penalty enforcement; otherwise, they only need to throw it up in the air.[7][8]

On December 8, 2013, Triplette's crew initially ruled that a fourth-down run by Cincinnati Bengals running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis against the Indianapolis Colts was down by contact just short of the goal line. Because it was less than two minutes before halftime, it automatically went to replay. After reviewing the play, Triplette reversed the call and awarded the touchdown to Green-Ellis.[9] His reversal was based on footage of Green-Ellis near the goal line where he was clearly not touched, but he did not look at footage earlier in the play where there was contact.[10] This miscall helped revive discussions around centralizing all replay review functions to the league office, similar to the National Hockey League's system.[11] Centralized replay was then approved at the owners' meeting on March 26, 2014, although NFL referees will still make the final decisions instead of the command center.[12]

Triplette privately began discussing retirement from the NFL during the 2017 season.[13] Triplette's work during his last assignment of the 2017 regular season (the Week 17 game between the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins) was marred by confusion over players (at one point ejecting a player from the wrong team who was not on the field and another player who did not exist after an on-field fight, eventually correcting his mistake after a ten-minute instant replay review).[14][15] In the following week's wild card game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tennessee Titans, he was also criticized for prematurely calling the ball dead before the play would have otherwise ended on several plays; one such incident, on a sack that appeared to be a forced fumble had Triplette not blown the whistle, potentially altered the outcome of that game. (Triplette defended his decision by noting that the rules for a sack do not require the quarterback be brought down, only that he be wrapped up and/or that his progress be stopped, which Triplette argued was the case.)[16] In both games, Triplette was criticized for losing control of the game.[14][16] After the wild card game, reports surfaced that Triplette was planning on retiring, and speculation also emerged that his officiating the playoff game was a farewell gesture from the league.[16] On March 6, 2018, the league confirmed that Triplette would be leaving his position after a 22-year career.[17] As he had notified the league well in advance, they were able to prepare for Alex Kemp to step into Triplette's position.[13]

Monday Night Football

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Triplette was added to the ESPN Monday Night Football broadcast team as a rules analyst in June 2018, replacing Gerald Austin.[18] He lasted one season in the role before ESPN replaced him with John Parry.[19]

References

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  1. ^ "Triplette promoted to vice president at Duke Energy" (Press release). Duke Energy. December 2000. Archived from the original on August 28, 2003.
  2. ^ "OUR TEAM". Archived from the original on July 25, 2018. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  3. ^ "Behind the Football Stripes". RefereeStats.Tripod.com. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  4. ^ "PRO FOOTBALL; Player Hit by Flag Is Still in the Hospital". Associated Press. December 21, 1999. Retrieved October 21, 2017 – via www.NYTimes.com.
  5. ^ "PRO FOOTBALL; Orlando Brown Is Suspended". Associated Press. December 23, 1999. Retrieved October 21, 2017 – via www.NYTimes.com.
  6. ^ Slotnik, Daniel E. (September 23, 2011). "Orlando Brown, Who Sued N.F.L. Over Errant Flag, Dies at 40". Retrieved October 21, 2017 – via www.NYTimes.com.
  7. ^ "ArbiterMobile - Mobile Referee Assignment & Schedule". ArbiterSports.com. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  8. ^ "Tape shows Jags' Beasley hit by flag". static.ESPN.go.com. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  9. ^ "Bengals build 14-0 lead after Colts' fourth-down stop reversed". ProFootballTalk.NBCSports.com. December 8, 2013. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  10. ^ "NFL admits making replay mistake in Colts game". The Washington Post. Associated Press. December 11, 2013. Archived from the original on December 12, 2013. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  11. ^ Mike Florio (December 8, 2013). "Replay could be heading to central location, eventually". ProFootballTalk.NBCSports.com. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  12. ^ Michael David Smith. March 26, 2014. "Five rules changes pass as NFL owners vote at league meeting". Pro Football Talk. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  13. ^ a b Seifert, Kevin (July 11, 2018). "Should NFL worry about referee turnover? Here's why there's concern". ESPN.com. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  14. ^ a b Michael David Smith (August 15, 2017). "Bills went from tanking talk to the playoffs, and other Week 17 thoughts – ProFootballTalk". Profootballtalk.nbcsports.com. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  15. ^ "The real reason for Dolphins WR Jarvis Landry's ejection vs. Bills | The Daily Dolphin". Dailydolphin.blog.palmbeachpost.com. January 2, 2018. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  16. ^ a b c Brown, Zoe (January 7, 2018). "Referee Jeff Triplette reportedly retiring after questionable performance in NFL playoffs | Sports". kctv5.com. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  17. ^ "NFL referees Ed Hochuli, Jeff Triplette retiring". NFL.com. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  18. ^ Cameron Filipe (June 20, 2018). "Jeff Triplette to join ESPN broadcast booth as rules analyst". Football Zebras. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  19. ^ Filipe, Cameron (April 1, 2019). "John Parry to become new ESPN rules analyst". Football Zebras.
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