Headlines
Oxford-Based NFL Ref Will Officiate Super Bowl XLVIII
Freeman as he looked as a member of the Bills.
Each Sunday, football fans cheer on their NFL teams as they battle on the gridiron.
What many local fans may not realize is that two Oxford residents put in their own time on the NFL field of battle. They’re referees. Steve Freeman is the back judge on Jeff Triplette’s crew. Freeman has been selected to officiate in this year’s Super Bowl on Sunday.
Triplette began his career as an NFL referee in 1996 as a field judge. Two season’s later, in 1998, he swapped jobs and became a back judge. In 1999, Triplette became a referee in the wake of four-time Super Bowl referee Jerry Markbreit announcing his retirement.
Freeman began his career as an NFL referee in the 2001 season. But the competitive former athlete had already made his name in NFL stadiums as a player for 13 years.
During his playing career, Freeman spent 12 years with the Buffalo Bills and one season in Minnesota as a Viking. He excelled as a strong safety and had 135 consecutive starts with the Bills.
Freeman’s best campaign was 1980, when he picked off seven passes for 107 yards and a touchdown. (According to Fox Sports.)
Super Bowl XLVIII (or 48 for those not well versed in Roman numerals) is this Sunday, Feb. 2 at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands, N.J. home of the New York Giants and Jets. It’s the first Super Bowl ever held in a cold-weather, outdoor stadium and could be extra challenging for the officials — especially for a Mississippi boy.
Jeff Triplette is the husband of HottyToddy.com writer Laurie Triplette.
The game matches the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks. Freeman will be on the field as the selected back judge for the NFL official Super Bowl crew.
Due to an NFL rule, no referee can do an interview with media through the season or post season. So hottytoddy.com was not able to talk directly to Freeman or Triplette.
For those of you who read HottyToddy.com religiously, Jeff Triplette is the husband of our “On Cooking Southern” writer Laurie Triplette.
Adam Brown is sports editor of HottyToddy.com
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| Sat, Nov 30 |  | vs Mississippi State | W, 26-14 |
| Thu, Jan 2 |  | vs Duke (Gator Bowl) | 6:30 PM • ESPN |
mark h stowers
January 29, 2014 at 10:32 am
…i talked to both back in 2012 for my column…
NFL
Refs Back on Field – Includes Two Mississippians – Jeff Triplett and Steve
Freeman
Good
Mornin’! Good Mornin’!
Back in 1977, I was on a championship team – the Central Delta Academy Tigers won the Three Rivers Conference Championship in football. The McClellan Twins (Bill and Phil) William Reed, Lewis Poindexter, Hubert Lester, Johnny Hughes, Mark Kelly, Will Beckham, Mark Aycock, Tony Johnson, Michael Johnson, Bobby Maxey and a dozen or so more kids were whipped into shape by Paul Ervin and Robert Wright came by to help us lineman learn now to keep our feet moving.
We went undefeated and I even scored a couple of touchdowns on interceptions and our front defensive line was so good they cleared the way for me to get a bucket load of tackles and make All Conference. And along the way we got a few
penalties and I can remember picking up one of those yellow flags and “acting
like an idiot and wiping my face with it” and I had a touchdown dance that was
a freelance sort of thing. But that was all the rage of the NFL in the late
70s. Billy “White Shoes” Johnson led the way and us slow-footed white boys
followed or thought we did.
But I love football and I love the NFL. Are you glad to have the real refs back? Back during their lockout I caught up with one ref, Jeff Triplett and then when the
strike ended I caught another, MS State grad and former Buffalo Bill star,
Steve Freeman. They actually are on the same officiating crew. Now they
couldn’t say a whole lot because they’re not supposed to chat with the media so
I tried to keep my questions clear of anything too controversial.
Freeman, a Texas native, somehow made it to Memphis where he was a high school star and State was the only team that offered him a scholarship so he took it. He started under coach Charlie Shira but ended up under Bob Tyler. His teammates included names that bring back a ton of memories and I can even hear Mr. Cristil telling us of their exploits on the field. Rocky Felker, Jimmy Webb, Ray Costic and
many others.
“We had seven or eight players guys all go and start in the NFL,” Freeman said.
“That was a pretty good run of people in that span.”
Freeman was drafted by New England but got cut after only two pre-season games and Buffalo picked him up and he spent the next 12 years roaming the defensive secondary. He played with OJ, Joe Ferguson and bridged the gap to Jim Kelly and Kent Hull.
But back then, after three years in the league his $28,000 a year contract didn’t
cover the cost of a wife and three kids so Freeman worked in the off-season. He
and teammate Ferguson farmed and raised cattle in Texas and his career
adventures brought him to Oxford where he raised cattle and got into building
homes. So he understands hard work and knows how to become the best.
“We didn’t make the money these guys make now so in the off-season we had to work,” he explained. “I worked my tail off the whole time.”
How did he get to the NFL as an official?
“Simply someone asked me – an NFL official called me,” he said. “I never thought about
it and never intended on it. Once you leave the field you’re gone and that was
a way to get back on the field. I’m 59, and I’m still in the middle of the
field.”
And now officiating runs in his family as two of his sons are in the profession.
One in high school and one in the SEC. Freeman has been a backjudge for the
past 12 years after he put in a decade to learn the life of an official working
high school and then SEC games.
“It’s not just something you can jump out and do. Even if you’ve played the game. You still have to go back and learn that side of the ball. It’s totally different,” he said.
The biggest transition for him as an official?
“In college you’ve got maybe two world class athletes if you have one on the field
at one time. In the NFL you have 22,” he said.
Triplett is a name you may know. He’s the guy that accidentally hit Orlando Pace with
his penalty flag a few years back. And since he wears the white hat, he gets
the priviledge of explaining calls that aren’t always so easy to explain. The Oxford resident and North
Carolina native found his way to Rebel country with his own consulting firm after
working with Duke Energy in several facets including risk management and real
estate.
His path to the NFL included working the Southern Conference and the Big East and
then got the call to work in the NFL Europe league in 1995 and made the step to
the big league in 1996. He and 120 others hold these coveted officiated spots.
Neither official has had the opportunity to work a Super Bowl (Triplett was an
alternate for Peyton’s winning Super Bowl) but they’ve put in a few league
championship games and Pro Bowls. Triplett is in his 17th season.
His first pre-season game was in August of 1996 in Jackson.
And how do you handle dealing with folks with names on the back of their jersey
like Marino, Elway, Manning, Dorsett and Smith?
“They are just great people and you get used to it after a while. You are in awe for a bit,” he said.
And how does he describe what he does?
“There’s about 150 plays in a NFL game,” he said. “There’s going to be times when you wish something hadn’t happened. Our rules aren’t the easiest things in the world to understand. You’re kind of like a Supreme Court justice except you have to have instant recall of laws and regulations that you’ve ever studied and
make sure you say it right the first time.”
But mistakes happen. Like hitting Orlando Pace in the face with your flag and
temporarily blinding him.
“I got through that with a lot of support from a lot of officials – and my faith.
It brought me a lot closer in my belief,” he said. “Orlando and I got to know
each other and we talked. I got to know about his mother. It’s one of those
things that we both wish had never happened but it brought us both closer to
our faith and closer as individual. Family and faith and the other officials.”
Family,faith and other officials – sounds like a good plan for make it through life’s
tough situations. Have fun at the fair, gig some Aggies, bullies say hello to
Mr. Tony Neely – the greatest Sports Information Director in the World – during
your stay in Kentucky and remember, folks, slow down around Yazoo City.
oldbulldogfan
January 30, 2014 at 8:00 pm
Didn’t Freeman play for MSU? They could have mentioned that.