The blitz is fierce and well timed, slamming the quarterback to the ground. As the crowd roars and defenders rise to celebrate, the fallen passer rolls onto his back and looks up at the first person he sees standing over him: a referee.

What does the quarterback say?

“Lying there, their reaction sometimes would be, ‘Man, there’s no way I could feel this terrible after a legal hit,’” said Gene Steratore, a longtime N.F.L. referee who retired in June.

Postponing a rules debate, Steratore would instead ask: “Are you all right?”

The exchange is just one example of the constant, if hidden, interplay between players and officials, a largely overlooked dialogue reserved for the few permitted to step onto an N.F.L. field.

“What happens out there is two human beings talking like any other two people would,” said Steratore, now a sports rules analyst for CBS. “Why should the normal things in life stop just because it’s the middle of an N.F.L. game?”