Countdown to Kickoff

Seven days: The visiting team's equipment manager works on logistics for their arrival to the stadium, including any special items requests in the locker room.

Four days: The wireless coordination contact — assigned by each team’s public relations staff by NFL mandate — directs credentialed media using wireless devices to the league’s local event frequency coordinator. The coordinator controls frequency-dependent traffic for technology used by media, coaches, players, game officials, medical personnel and others.

Three days: The home team tests and certifies that its playing field complies with NFL requirements on hardness, infill depth, evenness and other factors. Any issues with the surface must be fixed, retested and certified prior to game day.

24 hours: Game officials must be in the city in which they are working that week. If severe weather is anticipated, officials should arrange to arrive earlier. The crew meets the day before kickoff to reviews both teams’ tendencies and any weekly points of emphasis from the Officiating Department.

18 hours: Visiting teams traveling by airplane must be in the game city.

4 hours: All local game day assistants must arrive at the stadium and begin setting up their respective equipment/systems.

3 hours: Sideline and coaches’ booth technicians test the wireless equipment in each bench area and AudioCom wired equipment in each coaches’ booth. (If the coaches’ communications system (C2C) or Coach-to-Player communication system (C2P) for one team suffers a total system failure at any point during the game, the other team’s system will be shut off until functionality is restored to the affected team.) C2P technicians test and distribute C2P equipment to each club’s equipment manager. The injury video review system technician distributes a case containing fully charged radios to the visiting club’s athletic training staff at the entrance to the visiting locker room. Field technicians report to the stadium and set up field monitor systems.

2 hours, 30 minutes: The home club delivers the wireless microphone to the referee.

2 hours, 15 minutes: Each club provides 12 primary and 12 backup like-new, properly prepared Wilson official NFL footballs to the referee for inspection. Additionally, one representative from each team can inspect and prepare the kicking balls (K-balls) that the officials received directly from Wilson Sporting Goods.

Preparing the Footballs for Game Day Wilson Sporting Goods provides at least 24,960 official game footballs each season — 780 per team — for game use. Before each game, the footballs are prepared according to the NFL's rules. Here are the official game ball procedures. Two hours and 15 minutes prior to kickoff, both teams will be required to bring 24 footballs (12 primary and 12 back-up) to the Officials’ Locker Room for inspection. Two Game Officials, designated by the Referee, will conduct the inspection and record the PSI measurement of each football. The League’s Security Representative or the NFL Football Operations representative will observe the inspection process. Primary game balls for each team will be numbered one through 12, and any game ball within the allowable range of 12.5 PSI to 13.5 PSI will be approved, and the PSI level will not be altered. Any game ball that is determined to be over 13.5 PSI or under 12.5 PSI will either be deflated or inflated to 13.0 PSI. The same procedure will be followed with respect to the back-up set of game balls for each team, which will be numbered B1 through B12. Game balls approved for a previous game can be submitted, provided they meet the standards of a new ball. Upon approval, each game ball and back-up ball will be stamped with the Referee’s distinctive mark down the middle of the non-insignia panel. The number of the ball will be placed at the same location. A game ball or backup ball will not be approved after receiving six Referee marks. Once the game balls are approved by the Referee, the K-Ball Coordinator (KBC) will take custody of and remain responsible for the security of the game balls and back-up balls for each club. They will remain in the custody of the KBC until 10 minutes prior to kickoff. At that point, the KBC along with a designated Game Official and the League’s Security Representative will bring the footballs to the on-field replay station. Upon arrival, the game balls will be distributed to each club’s Ball Crew in the presence of the Security Rep. The back-up balls will remain in the officials’ locker room and will be secured to the satisfaction of the Referee prior to the KBC leaving for the playing field. Clubs may not pre-elect to use their back-up footballs in the second half. At randomly-selected games, the game balls used in the first half will be collected by the KBC at halftime, and the League’s Security Representative will escort the KBC with the footballs to the Officials’ Locker room. During halftime, each game ball for both teams will be inspected in the locker room by designated members of the officiating and security crews, and the PSI levels will be measured and recorded. Once measured, those game balls will then be secured and removed from play.



For these randomly-selected games only, the back-up footballs will be used for each team during the second half. Approximately three minutes prior to the second half kickoff, the KBC, along with a designated Game Official and the league's Security Representative, will bring the back-up set of game balls to the on-field replay station to be distributed to each club’s Ball Crew. Designated Game Officials will alert each team to the use of the backup balls prior to the start of the second half.



At the end of any randomly-selected game, the KBC will return the footballs from each team to the Officials’ Locker Room where they will be inspected and the PSI levels will be recorded.



All game ball information will be recorded on the Referee’s Report, which must be submitted to the League office by noon on the day following the game. All gauges will be certified prior to each season by Wilson Sporting Goods. Each Referee will be provided with a primary and backup gauge. NFL Football Operations will maintain a backup supply, as well. The same gauge will be used for pregame, halftime, and postgame testing. In the event the primary gauge becomes inoperable at any time following the pregame inspection, the backup gauge will be used for any remaining inspections, and the use of the backup gauge will be noted in the Referee’s Report. Expand

2 hours: C2P technicians conduct final C2P system testing with each club’s equipment manager. Sideline and coaches’ booth technicians conduct final testing on the entire C2C system. Field technicians conduct replay official equipment check at each of the field monitor stations.

2 hours: The injury video review system technician distributes a radio to the local league-appointed unaffiliated neurotrauma consultants, airway management physician and ATC spotters. The ATC spotters — located in a stadium booth — are certified athletic trainers (ATC) that help each team’s medical staff spot potential concussions or other head and neck injuries. A neurotrauma consultant on each sideline helps with assessing concussions, and one in the ATC Spotter booth helps identify potential head injuries. An airway management physician, certified in rapid sequence intubation, stands between the 25- and 30-yard lines near paramedics who have coordinated arrangements for immediate transport via police escort or medevac helicopter to a predetermined hospital.

2 hours: Game officials test the wireless microphone units (primary and backup). A member of each club’s sideline staff, designated as the liaison with the referee, keeps spare batteries for the units should they need to be replaced. The referee meets with stadium personnel at the 50-yard line of the home team’s bench area to check all necessary electronic equipment.

2 hours: All printing stations and Microsoft Surface tablets must be in place on the sidelines. These are used by the coaches for the printouts or the Sideline Viewing System, which lets them review images of opposing team coverages and schemes during play. The league office provides a four-person “purple hat” crew to set up the equipment; this crew will also take it down after the game ends.

2 hours: The visitor’s half of the field must be clear at least 120 minutes prior to kickoff, unless the field is tarped in accordance with league rules.

100-minute security meeting: One hour and 40 minutes prior to kickoff, the referee, league and club security representatives, NFL Football Operations representative, stadium security and the local senior public safety official in charge of the field meet to review procedures for responding to an emergency situation before, during or after the game.

The 90-Minute Officiating Meeting The 90-minute officiating meeting is critical for maintaining the schedule and coordinating with broadcasters. It includes eight mandatory elements, spelled out in the league’s Game Operations Manual. The meeting: Establishes the exact time and allows key staff members to synchronize their watches. Confirms kickoff time — at 2, 5, or 25 minutes after the hour for daytime games. Reviews the schedule. Confirms the exact time of day of the 2-minute warning that each team will be given before its players must leave their locker room for pregame player introductions. Reviews broadcasting policies and procedures, including reminding television representatives of the pregame schedule and that halftime will be exactly 13 minutes unless the league has previously informed the clubs and referee otherwise. Allows club PR representatives to deliver the Game Day Administration Report to the referee, which includes a Club’s inactive list, the primary and backup players designated to have C2P components in their helmets, and any players and/or coaches wearing microphones. Establishes a mutually agreed upon time for the NFL security representative, stadium field security representative, NFL football operations representative, and television networks to meet on the field to go over the sideline restriction rules for network crews. Expand

90-minute officiating meeting: One hour and 30 minutes prior to kickoff, the referee and other game officials meet in their locker room with both teams’ PR directors, the PR departments’ sideline communications personnel, the NFL sideline TV coordinator (Green Hat), the NFL football operations representative, the TV network representative and the network’s on-field communications coordinator (Orange Sleeves). This critical meeting includes the review of broadcasting policies and procedures, exchange of Game Day Administration Reports (which includes a club’s inactive list, players designated to have C2P components in their helmets, and players/coaches wearing microphones), synchronization of watches and review of the schedule, such as when each team must leave its locker room.

90 minutes: The grounds crew must have the tarp completely removed from the field if the field was covered due to precipitation. If the stadium has a retractable roof and/or wall, the home club notifies the referee or on-site NFL Football Operations representative whether the roof and/or wall will be open or closed during the game. An open roof or wall can be closed after this point only under certain conditions, including precipitation or if hazardous conditions, such as lightning, endanger people in the stadium.

75 minutes: Two game officials and a PR representative for the home or visiting team meet with the head coaches in their locker rooms to provide a copy of the schedule and discuss any timing issues.

What to Wear What to Wear On Oct. 26, 2014, the Pittsburgh Steelers took the field against the Indianapolis Colts wearing their 1934 throwback jerseys — black and yellow stripes, resembling a bumblebee. It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment fashion choice; the decision was made at least four months before the game, and it needed the approval of the NFL. By July 1, each club must declare to NFL Football Operations which jersey color it wants to wear (either white or the official team color) for each of its home games in the coming season. Visiting clubs must wear the opposite, based on the home team’s choice. The league first mandated that one team wear white and the other a darker color so that viewers could tell the teams apart on black-and-white televisions. In addition, each club can wear a league-approved optional uniform — alternate, classic or color rush — for up to three home or away games in the regular season and an unlimited number of games during the preseason. Those selections also must be submitted to NFL Football Operations by July 1 each year. Visiting teams can wear an optional uniform too, but only if the NFL determines it is of “sufficient contrast” with the home team’s jersey color. Expand

60 minutes: When applicable, the stadium roof and/or wall must be in its designated opened or closed position, and all lights must be turned on in domed stadiums or stadiums with a retractable roof in the closed position.

60 minutes: C2P communications technicians must be present in the bench area of each club. They remain there throughout the game. Field technicians prepare monitor stations for an equipment check by the referee.

60 minutes: The official team warm-up period begins. Each team must warm-up on its designated half of the field, as designated in the NFL's Game Operations Manual. During warm-ups, a league uniform inspector checks every player to ensure that all uniforms conform to league specifications.

35 minutes: The referee checks his microphone with the television network broadcasting the game.

20 minutes: Earliest a visiting team can be required to end its warm-ups, absent a leaguewide obligation or event being conducted on the field during the warm-up period.

Within 20 minutes, the schedule varies slightly depending on the game time, the network broadcasting the game and home team production elements.

Kickoff