Trey McBride had one word left for the official standing a few feet away: “Please.” The Arizona Cardinals tight end had just watched a third-down pass fall incomplete, with Giants cornerback Dru Phillips making contact before the ball arrived. Arizona was trailing 27-24 with 4:57 left, and McBride wanted to know why there was no flag. He found line judge Jeff Seeman along the sideline and pressed his case. 

BS sideline reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala, who was close enough to hear the exchange, later said McBride was heated but never heard him curse. At one point, she heard him tell Seeman, “You’re ruining the game.” Then the exchange changed. Broadcast cameras caught Seeman appearing to direct profanity at McBride twice. 

By Monday, the NFL had suspended Seeman for two games and handed another official a one-game suspension after a separate confrontation with a player on Sunday. NFLPA executive director J.C. Tretter posted a video of the same along with a statement saying:

“This kind of behavior from an official towards a player is unacceptable,” Tretter wrote. “Players are consistently held accountable when the roles are reversed. We expect the NFL to hold officials to the same standard.”

But the Seeman clip was only half of what the league was dealing with by Monday morning, and the other half involved a referee on the ground.

McBride’s own reaction came a beat later. He turned toward the CBS camera that had caught the outburst, pointed straight at it and burst out laughing.

The league had opened a review by Sunday night, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Both suspensions came from Ramon George, the NFL’s vice president of officiating, who cited “an instance of unprofessional conduct toward a player” in each case. League sources told The Athletic they were without pay.

Seeman is far from a rookie. He joined the league in 2002 and has worked exclusively as a line judge since 2003, with at least 14 games in every season, according to Pro Football Reference.

The Second Suspension

The second suspension went to referee Adrian Hill, whose incident unfolded very differently, though it drew the league’s attention all the same. During Minnesota‘s 15-10 win over Miami, Vikings linebacker Eric Wilson was shoved by Dolphins running back Ollie Gordon II midway through the first quarter, after a third-and-10 play was whistled dead on a Minnesota penalty.

Gordon kept blocking after the whistle, driving Wilson away from QB Malik Willis and into Hill, knocking the official to the turf. Wilson offered Hill a hand, but Hill got up on his own and, pointing and yelling, told Wilson to back away.

Hill made his NFL debut on Sept. 12, 2010, as a line judge in a Redskins-Cowboys game and has been a referee since 2019. Away from football, he works as an aerospace software engineer. Wilson didn’t take it personally.

“That was funny, honestly,” Wilson told reporters afterward, adding that he had apologized to Hill and the two had squared things away on the spot.

Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said he hadn’t gotten a clean look at the collision live, but stood behind Hill’s reputation regardless.

“I think Adrian’s a really good official and does a really good job,” O’Connell said Monday.

When Was the Last Time Officials Were Punished by NFL?

Suspensions like these are rarely handed down in the first place. Football Zebras, which tracks officiating, counted only eight known suspensions of officials for on-field incidents through 2018.

The most recent known case before this week came in December 2018, when umpire Roy Ellison was placed on administrative leave after Bills defensive end Jerry Hughes confronted him in the tunnel and accused him of cursing at him. Ellison was reportedly docked a game check. Ellison had also been suspended once before, in 2013, for using profanity toward a player. Last November, he was the one who took over as referee when Hill was carted off during a Bills-Texans game with a non-contact leg injury.

Before that, side judge Rob Vernatchi was benched for a week in October 2015 after an 18-second runoff went unnoticed in a Steelers-Chargers Monday night game. The clock had started early after a touchback and read 2:38 instead of 2:56 when Pittsburgh took over. The Steelers won 24-20.

The only time an entire crew has been suspended came in 1968, when Norm Schachter’s six officials lost track of downs at the end of a Rams-Bears game on Dec. 8. Not one of them worked another game that season, postseason included, which also made it the first suspension of any NFL official. That punishment was for a shared mistake. Monday’s was for individual conduct toward players.

Week 4 had already been loud before Seeman joined in. Prime Video’s microphones caught Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy swearing at each other during Thursday’s Steelers-Browns game, and Fox picked up Jalen Hurts going after one of his receivers. Those came from players and coaches in the middle of a game. Seeman’s came from someone whose job is to keep the temperature down.

The two incidents sat at opposite ends of the scale. One was a verbal shot at a player who, by Kinkhabwala’s account, had not cursed; the other was an animated reaction from a referee who had just been knocked flat.

With player conduct toward officials already policed closely through fines and ejections, Monday’s suspensions put the NFL on record that the standard is meant to apply to officials too, which is what Tretter had asked for within a day of posting the clip.