They were cops, teachers, investment advisers, a supermarket manager, even the director of a local parks-and-recreation department. They had officiated all over America, from the desolate high school fields of godforsaken Texas towns to D-1 college-football coliseums. They had dreamed of working in the NFL, but for one reason or another it just never happened for them. So when a mass e-mail went out last spring—Help Wanted: Refs—they jumped at the chance.

···

**Wayne Elliott, **_55, referee; Realtor and _NCAA Division III official, Austin: I received an e-mail in late April saying it looked possible that the officials might be locked out. I e-mailed the NFL recruiting office, and not two days later I got an application. Then I received like a six-page contract: "If you pass our background check, if you pass a physical, and if you come to spend three days in Dallas at this clinic, we will pay you X amount of money"—a signing bonus, basically.

Toney Brasuell, 49, head linesman; investment adviser and NCAA Division I official, Benton, Arkansas: There were two mini-clinics, one in Atlanta and one in Dallas.

**Bruce Hermansen, **68, referee; retired technology ecutive and retired NCAA Division I and II official, Aptos, California: We were mentored by various people, from NFL security all the way up to the vice president of officiating for the league. These were crash courses; we had about a month to get ready. They're taking you through actual game footage. It was totally consuming for four days.

Dwayne Strozier, 55, side judge; onetime supermarket manager, ex-USFL player, and former junior-college official, L.A.: Basically, they're teaching you how they want their game called. In the pros, you let things go that you wouldn't in college.

**Hermansen: **They put us through about four hours of agility ercises, which I think was their way of weeding people out.

Elliott: Some guys would fall on their back running backwards. They were just very clumsy, unathletic-looking people.

Brasuell: You had to do a half-mile run, which is just not that far, but some guys really struggled.

Perry Hudspeth, 64, line judge; investment adviser and retired NCAA Division I official, Winston-Salem, North Carolina: I wondered if most of the regular officials could even pass that test.

Elliott: There were like twenty people in the referee breakout meetings, and I knew most of 'em. I'm looking at my competition and thinking, I'm gonna be the man! I suppose they made their cuts from the résumés and just watching to see how you move, because there's nothing we did there that they could see what kind of an official we were. They only cut fifteen people from those two clinics.