A Day in the Life of an Officiating Crew

The Southeastern Conference allowed Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News to spend a day with an officiating crew before, during and after Tennessee and Vanderbilt played on Nov. 17. The Volunteers won, 25-24, but that didn't stop a Tennessee fan from saluting the officials with a middle finger as they made their way out of Neyland Stadium.

Two officials hurt their hamstrings. One correctly made a difficult call that was confirmed by instant replay. And one made a controversial pass-interference call against Tennessee that, had Vanderbilt not missed a subsequent field goal, could have yielded more than a middle finger from angry Volunteer fans.

Solomon also gets an inside look at how SEC supervisor of officials Rogers Redding helps officials fine-tune their skills.

Thanks to Image of Sport.