The US has been impacted badly by the nationwide ground stop. More than 14,000 flights were canceled on Friday and Saturday. While the nation deals with this setback, NFL fans expected that they too would have to face the music.
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A telecommunications outage affecting air route traffic control centres prompted the FAA to issue a nationwide ground stop at 3:54 p.m. ET (20:54 GMT) on Friday, disrupting flight operations across the country. Tom Pelissero reported that the NFL is now making adjustments because of this.
“One more officiating change for Sunday: The Saints-Panthers game won’t have a replay official in the stadium, so his duties will instead be handled by the replay center in New York, per sources,” reported the Ringer’s reporter.
This report came after Pellisero shared a list of changes on X.
“Due to the ongoing nationwide impact to air travel this weekend, the NFL has adjusted its officiating assignments for Week 10 games, reassigning officials to games within driving distance of their hometowns,” he wrote. “The changes will necessitate that three backup referees – umpires Barry Anderson and Duane Heydt and side judge Don Willard – will work as referees in the following games: Carolina-New Orleans – Duane Heydt. Jacksonville-Tennessee – Barry Anderson. Miami-Indianapolis and Pittsburgh-Cincinnati – Don Willard.
“Each of the league’s 17 officiating crews have a backup referee identified, and that individual trains throughout the year to work at the referee position should the need arise.”
NFL officials are assigned to games across the country. Many need to fly to their designated stadiums, often from their hometowns or other locations. To avoid travel complications, the league reassigned officials to games within driving distance of their hometowns.
The disruption reportedly stemmed from an ongoing upgrade to the country’s air traffic control infrastructure. According to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, contractor L3Harris Technologies Inc. was replacing outdated copper wires with fiber-optic cables when the system experienced an overload. The technical failure resulted in intermittent communication and radar disruptions, leaving authorities with little choice but to shut down air traffic for more than four hours.
While Duane Heydt will be the referee for the Saints-Panthers game, the fact that the replay center in New York will be filling in for the spot of a replay official is concerning. Normally, an in-stadium replay official sits right in the booth, talks directly to the crew on the field, and watches every camera angle in real time.
Handling it remotely from New York changes things, as the staff there have to rely on broadcast feeds, which can cause a slight delay when quick calls are needed. After all, Panthers fans are yet to get over last week’s controversial replay sequence in the 26-21 loss to the Denver Broncos.
The Panthers appeared poised to capitalize on their scoring opportunity, leading Denver 14-13 with less than two minutes left in the third quarter. Carolina faced a first-and-goal from the Broncos’ 1-yard line but went with a pass that was initially ruled incomplete.
Sean Payton, however, wasn’t convinced and challenged the call. What made the sequence particularly unusual was that officials acknowledged his challenge after the Panthers had already run their next play, with Chuba Hubbard carrying the ball. Upon reviewing the footage, the referees determined that Devon Key had secured an interception off a deflection, overturning the original incompletion ruling.
“They confirmed that he did throw the challenge flag before we snapped the ball on that very next play,” head coach Dave Canales stated. “So I gotta go from their word. I don’t have that at my disposal, but they did confirm that they got the flag out.”
Not just the NFL, college football, too, felt the brunt of the FAA ground stop.
FAA Ground Stop Effects Spill Beyond the NFL
While televised college sporting events avoided cancellations, several college football matchups were delayed to later kickoffs Saturday night.
“The Ole Miss football team was unable to depart Oxford Friday night due to the FAA ground stoppage,” the SEC said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “After the stoppage was lifted, a late-night departure could not be accommodated by the charter company with which Ole Miss was contracted, and the team’s departure has been delayed until Saturday afternoon.”
Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny was not on board with moving their home game against No. 19 Ole Miss from Saturday to Sunday.
“After multiple conversations with the league office, Commissioner [Greg] Sankey informed us of his decision to move our game to Sunday, over our strong objection. … He further informed us that our failure to play on Sunday at the directed time would result in a forfeit,” Denny said. “I understand that difficult decisions sometimes must be made under extraordinary circumstances. But those decisions must also consider the impact on everyone involved. Put simply, this decision isn’t fair to our athletes, our institution, or to Sooner Nation.”
College football fans will have an uncommon Sunday matchup to follow as Ole Miss and Oklahoma are now set to meet on November 15. The SEC rescheduled kickoff for 1 p.m. ET (12 p.m. CT), an unusual decision given how rarely college football games are played on Sundays during the NFL season.