Patrick MacArthur does a lot of thinking about families these days; the health and safety of his own in Edmonton, the emotional struggle of those he sees during shifts as a nurse on a neo-natal intensive care unit, and the well-being of his Canadian Football League brethren.

MacArthur, 53, has been a registered nurse since 2000 and a CFL official since 2010. He’s an umpire who has worked more than 170 games, including four Grey Cups, the most recent in 2019.

To date, his work on the NICU at The Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton hasn’t involved cases of COVID-19, and for that he is truly thankful. He wears PPE gear, including a tight-fitting N95 mask that irritates and bruises his face; wears gloves and washes his hands often, and changes out of his clothes as soon as he enters his home after each 12-hour shift at the hospital. So far, he has remained healthy, so too his family, which includes 16-year-old son Cullen.

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“The stress I’m having is, if I do contract the disease, is bringing it home to my family,” MacArthur said. “I have a son who suffered from bronchitis, so he’s very susceptible to respiratory infections. I’m not overly concerned if I get it, I’m pretty healthy and I think I might be able to fight it. But I’m more worried if I brought it home to him.”

He’s concerned too for the families whose children are in the hospital for life-changing or life-saving surgeries. In an effort to flatten the curve, Alberta Health Services policy now restricts visitation to just one parent at a time, and no extended family such as siblings or grandparents.

“To me that’s one of the toughest things we’re seeing. We are their coping group now because they don’t have the extra bodies around them. At the hospital they are in there with the nurses, and I work with a wonderful bunch of people, wonderful nurses who are very empathetic and caring, and it’s nice to see them take on the family role when the family can’t be there.”

When MacArthur is at home during his normal stretch of four consecutive days off, he runs on his own to stay in shape for his officiating job, and checks in with his extended CFL family, to make sure they’re navigating the new normal as best they can. He also gets weekly email updates from CFL associate vice-president of officiating Darren Hackwood.

“We’re tight here in Edmonton,” said MacArthur, who worked his first CFL pre-season game a decade ago at Commonwealth Stadium as part of referee Bud Steen’s crew. “We do try and talk on the phone once or twice a week, just to make sure everyone’s spirits are up.”

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MacArthur gravitated toward officiating after playing the game as a linebacker, then coaching the Edmonton Chargers, a minor football team. He said he thought he knew the game well enough, but as soon as he went down the officiating path beginning in 1998, his eyes were quickly opened to all the rules he didn’t understand.

“You listen to these veteran officials talk about football and it takes it to a different level that I hadn’t experienced before.”

CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie has already announced that the 81-game regular season will not start as scheduled on June 11, a reality the league had to face after the cities of Toronto and Calgary declared bans on public events through June 30. Though the league hopes to play at least a reduced schedule, down somewhat from 18 games per team, there is a chance the lingering pandemic will wipe out the entire 2020 campaign. If that’s the case, MacArthur would certainly miss his fellow crew members and the mostly good-natured banter he enjoys with CFL players.

“It’s an organization that’s very accepting and protective of each other,” he said. “And it’s an outlet for me. I deal with babies at one job, then I go deal with adults in my other job. It’s an interaction I would miss.”

CFL officials typically start each season on a designated crew. On or near Labour Day, additions and deletions will usually occur.

“So you are with a bunch of guys for a set period of time. It’s like having seven other brothers,” MacArthur said. “You know what brothers can be like. They can get along, sometimes they don’t, but in the end they all have each other’s back. It’s fun, and it’s a good friendship.”