Just hoping to go unnoticed

Richard Dunn

If football official Laird Hayes had it his way Saturday night

during the NFC Divisional Playoff game between the Atlanta Falcons

and the host Philadelphia Eagles, he’d be almost invisible as an NFL

side judge.

As an officials’ axiom goes, if no one notices you, you’re

probably doing your job well.

And on the heels of last weekend’s game-ending debacle for NFL

officials in San Francisco, Hayes can only pray -- like he does

before every game -- that something like that doesn’t happen to him.

“That was an oddball play at the end. It was just a three-ring

circus and I could easily see how they could (miss an interference

call on an eligible New York receiver),” Hayes said, referring to the

Giants’ botched field-goal try to win the game, when a bad snap

forced holder Matt Allen to scramble to his right, before throwing an

incomplete pass.

A day later, the NFL reviewed the play and determined that the

officiating crew missed 49er defensive end Chike Okeafor dragging

down Rich Seubert, an eligible receiver who was open near the goal

line. The league said the Giants should have been given another play

after offsetting penalties, but only an ineligible receiver penalty

was called against the Giants and the game ended.

“My prayer before every game is that something like that doesn’t

happen to me,” said Hayes, completing his eighth year as an NFL side

judge and his seventh straight year working a postseason game, an

honor for NFL officials, who are graded individually and break from

their regular crews during the postseason.

Hayes, a Newport Beach resident and Orange Coast College men’s

soccer coach and physical education instructor, worked Super Bowl

XXXVI last year when New England upset the St. Louis Rams, 20-17. It

was his first Super Bowl. Officials can only work one Super Bowl

every two years. Each official can work only one postseason game a

season, unless they’re also asked to wear their stripes for the Super

Bowl.

NFL officials are under closer scrutiny during Monday Night

Football games and the postseason because of the larger television

audiences. Furthermore, if it’s a high-profile game involving a New

York team and “something bad happens ... you can multiple (the

criticism) by two,” Hayes said.

There are 17 NFL officials at each position and 11 are invited to work the postseason. Hayes said his goal each year is to be asked to

work in January. By officiating a postseason game, an NFL official

not only receives a financial bonus, but is guaranteed to work the

following regular season.

Hayes, who is planning for cold weather Saturday night at Veterans

Stadium in Philadelphia, said he’s looking forward to the game and

watching Falcons quarterback Michael Vick and the return of Eagles

quarterback Donovan McNabb, who will play for the first time since

Nov. 17, when he broke his ankle. Former Corona del Mar High standout

Jeff Thomason, an Eagles tight end, is playing in the game.

Hayes, a former Pac-10 Conference side judge, has taught

everything under the sun in the OCC Athletic Department, including

aerobics, table tennis and surfing.

A Princeton graduate by way of Santa Barbara’s San Marcos High,

Hayes started the OCC surfing team in 1978 when a couple of students

approached him about it and he was serving as the college’s Assistant

Dean of Students, a role he filled from 1976 to ’85.

After a few years working at the district office as Director of

Community Relations, Hayes was assigned back to Orange Coast, this

time in 1987 to fill the role as men’s soccer coach. He led the

Pirates to state championships in 1989 and 1991.

Hayes officially broke into officiating as a Princeton

undergraduate student, starting with intramural basketball.

Inspired by his late father, Will, he turned his attention to high

school basketball and quickly worked his way up the ranks to the

varsity level, then small colleges. A few years later, baseball

umpiring entered the picture. “I figured I knew the strike zone,

because I was a catcher in baseball,” Hayes said.

Hayes never thought about football until 1976, when he was hired

at OCC and Wendell Pickens told him about the Orange County Football

Referees Association. In only his third year, Hayes said he got his

first big break, when veteran crew chief Larry Arason liked his work

and insisted he join his crew the following season.

Hayes started in the Pac 10 in 1983 as a side judge, but didn’t

get on a full-time crew until 1992.