This is the OTP presented by Far Bureau Health Plans. When it's game day for your health coverage, trust far Bureau Health Plans to draw up a winning play for you. They've been backing Tennesseeans for nearly eighty years. We welcome in head coach Brian Callahan for his usual visit. Brian, A lot of these mondays with us have been tough for you, and we must just for things they have. But you guys keep it, you guys enjoy it. We try.
So let me ask you a serious question. How have you been able to keep perspective through all of this.
It's a challenge, you know, because everything is so weak to week in the league and you and you feel every loss so intensely, you know, and then they pile up and there's just it just feels like it's a bit of a beat down. So it is difficult to keep the perspective. But I do have I do try to focus on the things that one I can control and two that that are positive. And so you keep trying to find positives and all the experiences, keep trying to build the team and messaging to the team the
way that you want it to be done. And ultimately with an eye towards you know what's to come, and you know another personnel cycle and another offseason and another year. For me, the amount of growth I've gone through this year has been pretty remarkable, and there's a lot of things that I'll I'll continue to adapt in evolve as I learned how to be a head coach and learned a lot of hard lessons this year, and those are
the things that sort of keep me going. The challenge of it is what really keeps me going.
Is the challenge of being consistent. The number one thing you have to focus upon.
Yeah, it's an emotional game. You know, there's a lot of emotions that run in wins and losses. And I think I've always felt like the best teams handle winning the same way they handle losing, and I try to be that even amidst a lot of losses this year's you still try to be critical of performance and but but coach and encourage and keep keep moving forward and
keep trying to get better. But those are the consistency part, I think is something that I've had to really focus on because you can get you can get lost in the negativity of it all sometimes and you have to work really hard to stay consistent when it gets really difficult. You know, it's easy to stay consistent when it's good, sure, but the you learn a lot about a lot of about people players, about how people react to adversity when things don't go the way you plan and and don't
go as well as you want them to. But the consistency part is something that I work really hard at and I think I do a decent job of it. But yeah, it's certainly not easy.
I appreciate Mike asking a broad philosophical question. I am here to get down to brass tacks.
I guess here I am.
Have you decided who is going to be your quarterback this Sunday?
Not yet.
I'm actually leaning towards having both of them play at this point. To be honest, I'm not sure who's going to start or who's going to play when, but preliminarily thinking that that they both might on this week.
So yeah, we'll see from that standpoint, getting a chance to play both guys, what do you think that gives you in the last game and gives you headed toward the off season.
Yeah, just one more shot to play good football for you know, Will has been on the on the bench for two games, and Mason's done some good things, but yet still haven't found a way to win the games that he's played, and so just give him one more chance to go out and play good football and see if see if they can improve on their performance. Ultimately, that's what we're looking for, is to find a way to win. We haven't won a lot of games and need to need to try to finish strong.
As it pertains to injuries, are there any injured players that you're already ready to say they're not going to be playing on Sunday.
I think it'll be hard for for Taji to clear the protocol fast enough to play Sunday. I'm not going to rule him out or by any means, but you know, concussions generally, it's generally a one game miss for the most part over a history, so I'm not counting on him being able to make it. Everybody else has a chance, and we'll see as the as the week pushes forward, some of the guys that missed this last week might have a chance to get back and play, So we'll see.
I'm optimistic about a lot of them, but you never you never really know until you get out to practice by Wednesday, so too early to tell officially, but but optimistic on a couple of guys.
Let's get back. Goes back up to Taj just a second. He showed something different in the game at Jacksonville. He showed he has the ability to be a lead back.
Right he certainly did. He was a really impressive performance. You know, I think the the the tough part of it was I think he took a five yard loss in that last carry that knocked him off his hundred
one hundred. So but yeah, he he performed fantastic. I mean, he looked explosive, He ran hard, he ran strong, he was physical, protected the ball great, put the ball in the right spots in the in the run game, and you know, we run for almost one hundred and sixty yards or whatever it was, and he was a large
part of that. So a really impressive performance and then a bummer that that he couldn't finish it out because I thought he would have, you know, would have been a banner day for him on top of what he are he had so good to see for him. He's played really good football for us for the last month and that's really been positive.
As we turn to the Houston Texans, we know that their playoff position is locked in, but we don't exactly know how much their starters are going to be playing on Sunday. Does that mean that for you, on both offense and defense, you have to have a pretty fluid game plan.
I think you just you prepare like they're all gonna play, and then you just adjust from there. You know, that's that suits you. The The gist of it for us is that all their best players are gonna play, and if they don't, they don't. You know, I think they they've last played on Wednesday. It's a long layoff between there and the first playoff game for them. So you know,
I'm not I'm not in their building. I don't coach the football team, but I do think that my perspective would be, you'd want some guys to play a little bit, you know, just to keep keep your keep your skills sharp, and get yourself ready to go to for the playoffs. And so we'll see, and I just will plan on like they're all gonna play, and if they don't, they don't.
Well, And they've got some guys too, like mixing seven yards short of a thousand yards rushing. Collins is thirty two yards short of a thousand yards receiving, and those things matter too, very much, so for personal goals in some cases contractual goals as well.
Yeah, those are all parts of the process. I mean, those are things that guys are aware of. It means something to them. They're they're very significant statistical markers that guys want to hit.
So yeah, they're there.
I'm sure those guys are going to try to get what they need, just like you know, we want Calvin to get a thousand yards. You know, those are all things that we want guys to be able to achieve and give them the opportunity.
To do it.
You beat the Texans in the first game in Houston. What are some things from that contest that you want to replicate here on Sunday.
I think the way our defense played and the way they covered it was really an impressive performance. I'd like to see that again. I thought we rushed the quarterback pretty good in that game as well. I think we put cgen or some duress. Offensively, we generated some explosive plays, like to do that again, but I thought we protected well against a pretty good rush group. So I'd like to see that continue. They got good players on the edges, they got a good interior rush, they can they got
a good scheme. So it's a good challenge for us, a good way to finish the season. All right, let's wrap up with this Pro Bowl comes out on Thursday. Who are some of your Tennessee Titans that you think have had Pro Bowl worthy seasons in twenty twenty four. Yeah, I think Jeff certainly has. He's still one of the most disruptive interior players in football. Plays the run in
the pass equally well. He doesn't maybe have the sack production that some of these interior guys have, but as far as impact on our team, he's one of them. I think Mamani Hooker's played really well. I think he should deserve to be in the conversation with some of the safeties run the league. His ball production has been really good. I think also Luke Gifford as a special
teams player is Pro Bowl worthy. I think he's a fantastic special teams player on top of the fact that he's filled in very well for us at linebacker, but as a special teams player, he's fantastic. And then the guy that I think is really underrated is Pete Skronsky. I think Pete's put together a really, really nice season. I put him up against any of the Pro Bowl guards right now. I think he's been fantastic, particularly the last half of the year. He's been lights out. I mean,
he's really playing good football. So those are the guys I think are the ones. Tony Pollard probably belongs in the discussion. Although it's a crowded discussion for running back right now, but I think Tony Pollard should be at least discussed amongst some of the better backs in football. So yeah, I think those are those are probably the guys that earned the recognition. Again, receivers are crowded. There's a lot of receivers that are really productive. But I
think Calvin's played really well for us too. Whether or not that where it's a Pro Bowl not or not, I don't know. I just appreciate how he's played. But yeah, there, I think that we've got a couple of guys that should be at least in the conversation for some of those spots.
Hard to believe it's the last one.
It really is, It really is. It's hard to believe. It's almost some coming up on a year. I know, just the amount of things that have gone on and the work and the ups and downs and all the things that happened in your first year. It's, you know, first year sort of coming to a close, and now you reflect and get better and go attack the second year.
You know, Ryan Callahan, we always appreciate you.
Thanks for having me.
Coming up next, Mike Pereira, Fox's Rules Analyst. He is after the break.
Stay with us, Hey Titans fans With a Kroger Boost membership, You'll score big with double fuel points, free delivery, and lots more. Go to Kroger dot com slash boost for details. Kroger official grocer of the Tennessee Titans.
Tighten Up Holm is at the forefront of all that we do. It's why we're so committed to caring for the places and spaces in which we work and live. Ashley the official furniture provider of the Tennessee Titans, now joined by Fox's Rules Analyst, who was the NFL's Vice President of Officiating from two thousand and four through twenty ten. You know him, Mike Pereira, Welcome.
You know you keep saying those years two thousand and four. Man, I just feel myself getting so much older. God seems like forever. I'm great. I'm absolutely great. Happy Holidays, stall Well.
I interviewed you the year you got the job. You and I did a long phone interview in two thousand and four for Titans Radio the year you got the job, and you were explaining what the job was really it was great.
Wow, great coach Mack maybe with us.
Coach Mack was on the staff at that point.
Yeah, Oh, he was still on the staff, Mike.
That was Coach Mack's first year on the staff for Jeff Fisher, as he replaced Gunther Cunningham. Wow. Who went back to Kansas City, the late great Gunther Cunningham.
Wow.
All right, So two topics to begin with, and these neither has anything to do with your job now, except that you missed last season after you had some serious back issues. You had some back surgery. So it would be poor of me, poor form to not ask you, Mike Pereira, how you do it.
I got my life back thanks to a surgeon at uc SF in San Francisco, a doctor Sigurd Boervin, who somebody recommended to me. I was done I was cooked. I couldn't walk, I couldn't get out of bed. Basically when I could, I was on a walker and my life was over as I knew it. I mean, it really was. And when you feel that way, when you're active like we are, some of the thoughts that go through your head are not good ones, but they almost it's almost assuredly they're going to appear. And I went
through the surgery I had. I was fused on seven different levels in my back. I have more metal than spine.
In my back.
And three months three months after I had the surgery, which was approximately on November one, twenty twenty three, at eight thirty in the morning, three months after, I was walking a mile and now I walk two to three miles.
And I can do.
Everything I used to do, except I can't tie my damn shoes.
I can't.
I can't bend over that far. And when it comes to putting out stop putting on socks. I have a little contraption that I have to put my sock over and then pull them up with straps.
But I'm the luckiest man in the world.
That's great.
I'm a football person. I divide my life into quarters. First, second, third, and fourth, and the fourth quarter starts over an age span of one hundred starts at age seventy five. And I'm headed into the fourth quarter now, and I've been given a second chance, and I'm just the luckiest guy in the world.
That's great, that's so good to hear. Well, my topic that we need to cover is a little more goofy. It's kind of silly, but in the season opener, you were trending all of cross social media. You were everywhere because you left Tom Brady hanging giving him a fist bump, and I'm gonna leave you hanging.
Ry, Oh, come on you and Tom.
Brady ended your alleged feude.
Yeah, are you still fighting?
You know the.
Funny part of that thing. Of course you don't realize it when it's happened. But the thing is the setup that I have in the booth. I have to reach down and push a button to talk. So just when Kevin Burkhart was kind of introducing me, I didn't think I was gonna say anything. I think it was just just gonna be a shot of us. And then he made a reference to me and I had to say something. So just as Tom stuck his hand out. I looked down to my button to push my dang button so
that I could talk, and of course it came. It looked like the ultimate rejection for Tom. And then of course they showed videos of him on the sideline at a different time to getting ignored by something. So then the following week Ian Blantino was in my spot, and then they made a concerted effort to fist bump and make it look perfect, which made me look even worse.
But yes, Tom and I have we have made up, and we have spent a lot of time together since then, and yet we have not found an occasion to fist bump, And maybe we will this this coming week seventeen or into week eighteen. But it's actually been a pleasure to be standing next to him during the course of games.
A potential Christmas miracle. We'll see the fish pump, all right. So let's talk officiating. My prayer, is there a real movement afoot to finally change the pass interference penalty on the defense from a spot foul to a fifteen yard penalty.
I so wish, Mike that I could say that there is, But there isn't. I mean, the Competition Committee is definitely afraid of taking away the deep vertical path, and I am definitely afraid of the same thing that I saw when I worked in the league office and ran the officiating program, and those were forty fifty yards incorrect calls that were made. They gave fifty yards chunk yards to
a team that didn't deserve it. And I would argue with the competition committee that much like we do in the spring leagues now, where we use the college rule. You know, they always say to me, well, if a defender gets beat, then he's just going to reach out and tackle a guy. And I say, do you watch college football. If they're close enough to commit pass interference, they're trying to make the play. That's not true. They don't just tackle people. And I even conceded to changing.
The rule to say, if it is.
An intentional act of just tackling a guy and not making any type of play, then we could make that one a spot foul. But no, I don't see it on the horizon. I don't see it on my time. Anytime they've tried I did do anything with pass interference, including making it reviewable in replay, it's failed. And so I just don't see that they have that appetite, even though I sure wish.
They would my PRAYERRA twenty twenty four has been the year of the dynamic kickoff. Do you think it's still too early to call that change to the kickoff a success? That is a permanent fixture in NFL football.
I'm not too early to call it a success.
Now.
I think that it will change, I think, but the changes will be tweaked. Look, what were the two reasons that they were looking for? The two results they were looking for less concussions and more returns. There are less concussions, although we haven't seen that final data. From what we've seen so far, that's certainly a positive. What about the number of returns, well, they've gone from nineteen percent to thirty two percent. What about the average drive start? It's
actually gone to twenty nine point five? Is the is the average yards where you know the offense takes over the ball.
So I believe, although.
This is a temporary rule and has to be voted positively, it has to be a positive vote by twenty four of the thirty two owners, I believe it will pass again, and maybe if it kind of copies how instant replay went. They might say two years next time and make it a temporary.
Two year rule. But what tweaks will they look at.
I don't think they're quite satisfied with thirty two percent returns. I think they want to see more along the forty four to forty five percent returns. So what's the easiest way to do that. Well, maybe back up the kickoff so you kick off from five yards further downfield. But I think the main one would be take touchbacks. If a ball's kicked into the end zone and doesn't bounce
into the end zone. If it's kicked into the end zone right now, it goes to the thirty I think they're more wise to move it to the thirty five because now you're a total of six yards over the average drive start, and there's more incentive to keep a team from kicking it into the end zone. Look, the touchback last year was the twenty five yard line, this year it's the thirty. Team said I'll give up the extra five. That's not that big of a deal. Extra ten that's a little bit more big of a deal.
So I kind of predict that we will see the rule passing in maybe for another one of two years with the touchback going to the thirty five yard line, and if they do that, I do think will be I think this rule will be around for quite a while.
Hey, Titans fan, seat geek makes it easy to find tickets so you can be a part of all the touchdown celebrations this season.
Whether you're buying or selling football tickets, seat geek is the place to do it. Seat Geek is the official primary ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titan.
The most disruptive idea in ticketing ticket that works expect the expected. See geek.
C K.
Made a rookie mistake this football season, Maybe you should have had snickers because now.
You can enter for the chance to turn those rookie mistakes into prizes, including a trip to Super Bowl fifty nine.
Visit snickers dot com slash Rookie Mistakes for details. Mike. In twenty twenty four, we have noticed the impact of replay assist very consistently. In your opinion, is that a positive or a negative for NFL officials?
Well, there might's the main question who's at the benefit for Is the benefit for the game or is the be benefit for the officials. I think the benefit is there for the game those of us that watch the game, we have less stoppages that take two or two and a half minutes. That's the benefit. Is it good for the officials, that's a different story. You know, I'm not popular within the ranks sometimes when I say that I don't think officiating is as good as it used to be.
Officials don't like to hear that. But the fact is, technology controls the game at this point. You know, back when I officiated, which was a long time ago, so we're talking about ninety six and ninety seven, you know, we were responsible to run the game. I mean, if you threw a pass interference flag, you had to determine.
Even though you weren't absolutely certain.
And you were ways away, you have to you had to determine where the spot of the fowl was. If there was a runner that went out of bounds, you had determined whether to determine whether or not he was at the thirty seven or the thirty eight yard line. And grant you, you weren't always accurate. But now you know, the big guy comes in. You know, you call pass interference and the next thing you know, in your ear you hear.
Put the ball at the two four yard.
Okay, whatever you want me to do, I'll put it there. Guy runs out of bounds, you put him at the thirty seven. Put the ball at the thirty eight and a half. They've taken officiating out of the hands of the officials, which in my opinion, has done two things. Made him a little tentative waiting for input and also protected some officials who are maybe struggling because they're changing calls that are on the field.
But if we look, if we look at.
The grand plane and what we want, I mean, are more calls being accurately made in the field, Yes, And is the game flow a little better with expedited review or assist yes. So we're not going to see it going backwards. As a matter of fact, we'll see it going forward. You will see more activity in the way of correcting. For example, the the rule of the year face mask violations that they'll certainly, in my mind, will now have face mask calls reviewed. So if they're not
face mask then they can take them off. If they're not hits on defensives receivers, they can take them off. People say, well, that's not the problem. The problem is
if they're not called, that's the bigger problem. But if you actually tell the officials, if you say to the officials win in doubt, go ahead and throw it because replay can pick it up, then you're going to get these ones that aren't called that maybe they didn't have a great look at Maybe then they will call them, and then, like I said, if if they're not, then they can be taken off. Look, I'm a proponent of
the sky judge. I'm a proponent of letting an official be in a booth with a second look at every play and let him correct it as.
Knee to be.
We're getting close to there. We just don't call it a sky judge. But you know, with the technology, with the importance of the games, with the gambling, it's more important that we get as much as we can get right, even though it is absolutely impossible to get everything right.
Okay, so you brought up the sky judge, and I would love it if you could clarify this for me. What is the difference between what the league is doing now with replay assist and what a sky judge would do. Is it just that it's a person on site in the building. Is that the difference?
Well, let's see.
You've gotten now replay can use expedited review with the or assist with the replay person that's in the studio. Then New York is the next level, and they make all the big decisions on the reversals, the challenges, the confirmations of changes of possessions or score. But you know, Amy, it's getting close, It really is getting close. But they'll never call it the sky Judge because you know, the
Spring Leagues called it a sky judge. So they don't want to, like, they want their own term, you know, if it, if it comes to if they're gonna they're gonna.
Call it the Master Referee or.
Something like that, and they'll have them, they'll have them wearing you know, striped shirts inside the booth, in the in the press box. But it is, it is inching closer. And you know, I'm I'm a purist. I mean, I love the game. I love every aspect of the game pretty much. And I always loved it because it was a human game. It was a violent game. It was a game where you know, humans played it. I mean humans coached it. Humans made decisions, humans fumbled, humans through
incomplete passes. Coaches call bad plays and officials made incorrect calls, and so the problem is the only the expectation of perfection is for the officials who have the hardest job of maybe all of them, because it's a mental job, not a physical job. And we always forget about the fact that when we all watch it, when the three of us watch it, you know what, we're watching it mostly in slow motion. When they replay things and from above looking down, I mean, they're on the same level.
They're looking through twenty two bodies and they just don't get the look that we do. So replays good for the game, but kind of deemphasizes the importance to me of the officials job.
All right, Mike Prayri, you got to help me with something.
I'm here to help you.
I've God bless you because here's I Here's what I got is the whole offensive tackle isn't lined up on the line of scrimage. He's lined up in the backfield. Thing really that big a deal, to the point that it's been started that people have started calling it so much here late in the season.
Well, first of all, first of all, this is a hard one to help. First of all, officials are doing what they're told to do. They get the flat, but they're told to do it by their leadership, by the competition committee. Whatever does it create that much of an advantage for the player that's lined up a little deep? Maybe a little bit, But ultimately, what are they also trying to do? What are they trying to do in
this game? What's the what's w's the one person on the field that they're mostly trying to protect, the quarterback. So a little bit of you know, worrying about the tackles being lined up a little bit off the line of scrimmage, Well, they need to do that to protect that quarterback that they're trying to protect. So to me, it's making it's making a bigger deal out of it than they need to make. But I think, you know,
help me with this one. Okay, if you can understand this statement from me, we no longer officiate the game as artists. We officiated as scientists. And here's what I mean by that. I think we have a tendency to over officiate the game. Back in my day and back in the days before me, it was about advantage disadvantage, right, and if something didn't create an advantage and it wasn't
safety related, you don't call it. But where they are now, where they are with officials, if you don't call things that they think need to be called, you get a downgrade. And if you get a downgrade, that affects your chances of making the playoffs. If you get three or four downgrades, it affects your chances from, you know, working a championship game. I mean, if you get two, you probably eliminate your
chances from working the Super Bowl. So you're calling things just because they feel like they should be called, even though they don't understand that what they're downgrading people for doesn't have an effect. For example, for example, at the end of a game a week ago or two weeks ago, they downgraded official an official for not calling an illegal formation with twenty one seconds to go in the fourth quarter of a three score game.
You want that called?
No, you want that interruption, you know, when it absolutely has no impact of the game. The artistry in the game of officiating has pretty much left the scene, and that's what concerns me a little bit. It's not for the good of the game. It's for the competition. It's for the competition of the officials. Moving on and even staying employed, and I just think they need to be less a part of the game than more part of the game. And all my guys hate me for saying that, but that's okay.
Well, similarly, the hip drop tackle was a point of emphasis going into this season, but it doesn't seem as though it's being called very often. Does that mean that the plan worked and players knew it was being emphasized and so they stopped doing it, or is it just too hard to judge when that's happening and officials aren't inserting themselves like you've said.
Yeah, well, Amy, they did say they did to all the clubs look for it.
Don't look forward to be called.
And that's the same thing that happened with the illegal use of the helmet contact. Very difficult to call, and so they said the players, and they said that the coaches, and they said the ownership. Look, this is really hard to call, and so we're not expecting the officials to call it. But you can expect the letter from the lead, which is going to take some money from you. So that's the way. And I felt less strongly about that. I felt like you could call illegal use of helmet
the hip drop. I was more concerned about. And that's why I said, if you're going to put these types of rules in that you say are so difficult to call, then make them reviewable. I mean, why would we not do that because you're basically given a free chunk to a team that should have gotten it for the foul and so have they followed the letter of the law. Have the officials called it? Well, we guess what. We got to week sixteen and we got our first one.
We got our first one that was called on the field.
It was wrong.
It wasn't a hip drop tackle.
So we're er for one on the field when we're trying to call the hip drop.
Why was it wrong.
Because he didn't elevate, He didn't elevate, his body hit the ground, and then the legs didn't get all the way over on the onto the ankles of the runner.
Good God, it's a complicated one.
That might be the most complicated call that the officials would have to have to make. So I think, you know, certainly, I don't expect to see one in week seventeen or eighteen, and I don't expect to see one in the playoffs. But it's I'm always a bit amused when you put in rules that you know can't really be officiated, but that is player safety, and there have been a number of injuries.
So I understand that, Mike.
What is the most important issue or issues that you think the NFL officiating office is going to have to deal with in this upcoming offseason.
I think it's going to revolve around replay.
I mean I really, I really feel that, and how much more they're going to get involved with picking up flags on the field. Look, they did a couple of things last year already. They said if rupping the passer is called for a hit to the head or neck area, if there is no contact to the head or neck area, then replay can.
Take it all.
If they throw a flag for intentional grounding because of the fact that the quarterback got out of the pocket and didn't get the ball back to the line of scrimmage, they can go back and put him in the pocket if he was indeed in the pocket. So they've made these strides, which I guess are okay, But I have a couple of issues in regards to that. Number One, they're using a different standard to me when it comes to like and this is going to be it hits
on defenseless players. If they said we can pick it up if there's no head contact to the head or neck area, they won't pick it up. If there is any contact, even ever so slight to the head or neck area, they.
Won't pick it up.
They won't make that additional judgment as to whether it's forcible or not. And so that to me is, look, if you're going to make get reviewable. If there's not forcible contact, then take it off. If it's just a glancing blow with a hand, it's not consistent with what you want called on the field. If you look at it and say you're going to tell the referee, okay, look at I don't want that call that's incorrect even though there is slight contact, and make it incorrect with replay,
and then the other thing that's going to happen. I do think that in some ways it's going to open up Pandora's box, as I stated earlier, where if you let the officials know that their call is subject to being picked up, they'll have more of a tendency to call it. So let's just take face mask. So if they call a face mask, and then the league says
we'll pick it up. If there's absolutely no contact. Then if there is the slightest of grab that you wouldn't have wanted call before, then you know, then they wouldn't take it off.
So I would hope.
They would get to the standard of it is or isn't a foul period and make that decision based on that. And I also think that if there are some that are so obviously misspace mask Sam Darnold, Joe Burrow, if it's if it's so clear and so obvious and it's player safety related, and the officials looking through twenty two people didn't get a look, and let them put it on. I mean, let it put them on. I mean we're
headed that direction anyways. And so lastly to me, and this was my gift when I left in twenty ten, I said, make all seventeen referees full time, make them full time, Make them report to their officiating place. Maybe put it somewhere in the middle of the country, like Dallas, and they go there every week during the season.
They work together, They develop.
The same messages, they teach the same messages to their crew. They role play, they learn what to say, what the signals are. They do everything together, they participate with the Head of Officiating, they participate with the competition Committee. Two of them each year are assigned to the Titans, and they come to the Titans mini camps everything, they're with them. Now, you don't let them work a Titans game. I just think that you have one hundred and twenty smid officials
being taught by a very limited number of people. And to me, the referees are the most important because they teach their own crews, and so I would love to see him bite the bullet, spend the money and get more consistent messages to all one hundred and twenty officials. And you know the league, and I don't like to criticize them because often they don't deserve to be criticized
and are. But the league has had as a tendency to try to make things better by putting band aids on, and band aids usually and when a rule change its reaction to something that happened. I think they just need to take a big step now because the game's getting tougher to officiate. And I'm not for making one hundred and twenty one guys or one hundred and twenty one guys and girls full time, but I am for the seventeen referees because I do think that will have a positive effect.
Now you mentioned all of these officials that are involved, we also know that there's a shortage of officials in high school and college who are coming up the ranks. What are you and others doing to try and encourage more men and women to get involved in the career of officiating.
Well, we're trying to get parents to shut up.
I mean, just to be absolutely candid, because all new officials start at the youth level, and the sportsmanship is the youth level is as bad or worse than any other play. You know, they're not competent, they're just starting out and you got parents yelling at them, and so.
What do they do? Quit? It's not worth it.
It's not worth it for the money that they make on the youth level or the high school level, or in fact even the college level.
But that's a different story.
But the shortage, as you said, Amy, it's it's unbelievable. I mean, and it's just pretty much every sport and it's every state, and the only people who are going to make it better are the officials themselves. I mean, they have to actually, I mean they care about each other. They have to go about trying to find a way to get more people involved. And every time I speak to groups, I tell them that that nobody, no athletic director, no coach, no mayor of a city's going to do
anything for you. You have to care about officiating. You have to try to leave it better than it was when you first got into it. And there are ways, you know. I started a foundation in twenty sixteen called Battlefields to ball Fields, and we give scholarships to veterans to become sports officials in their communities. We've got officials in our program from Tennessee. We pay for their uniforms, we pay all their expenses, and we now have issued
over fifteen hundred scholarships in thirty eight different states. It's not much, I mean, that's only fifteen hundred, But if we could all of us that are in this avocation for most people it's an avocation, if we could step up and figure ways to do things like that to overall help our program and ours has been kind of successful. And the success is retention, quite frankly, if you get
them staying involved. And part of my thing was because Number one I don't feel that we do enough for our veterans.
Number two, I don't.
Think they're going to be bothered that much by those parents that are yelling at I mean, they went they went through Uh, they were a lot more.
But it is dire situations.
Yet, I will tell you, if you have the guts to take on something that's so difficult, that's hard to put your butts on the line, if you make it for three years, you develop lifelong friendships, a group of people that share the same frustrations that you have. And I'm telling you all of my good friends, including the best man at my wedding there they're officials, and so I hope things get better because it's the kids that are suffering.
Mike Pereira, thank you so much for the time. We've kept you too long, but so much fun to catch up with you.
Was prepared to go another half hour.
A mean, I'll just head out New Year's Eve, that'd be great. Thank you so much for your time, and we are so glad that you are doing well. When we read everything last year, we were worried. We talked to Coach Mack about it and he kept us posted and it's just it's not the same without you. I mean, you are the original in this field. And when Mike Pereira says it, it is so. It is so. We all listen. Now, we know you have problems with Tom Brady and we hope that clears up, but.
Well listen, it's a pleasure to talk to you you again, Mike. Yeah, you know, I'm a big fan of coach Mac And as I said, I'm just I'm lucky to be sitting in this chair talking to you, and I will never forget that luck and good fortune that I got and the great surgeon, and I'll be in Minnesota in week seventeen, and I'm just supercharged and happy to be able to do that.
Mike Praira, thank you.
You got it.