Former VP of officiating explains NFL procedures for refs amid legalized gambling

Dean Blandino knows what he's talking about when it comes to NFL officiating.

Blandino was the NFL's vice president of officiating from 2012 to 2017. He's now a rules analyst for Fox Sports, so he went from reffing the game to talking about it on Saturdays and Sundays — largely dissecting rules and instant replay challenges.

Speaking of talking, Blandino was recently on the "Awful Announcing" podcast, where he was discussing the widespread legalization of sports gambling and how it has impacted the jobs of NFL referees.

He explained the in-depth investigation the league goes into before an official is fired.

“They look at all of your business associations. They look for conflicts of interest — all of that, bank accounts, everything,” Balndino explained.

Interestingly enough, NFL referees aren't even allowed to wear league gear while outside of the stadium, because officials have been approached in the past in an effort to try to manipulate games for betting purposes.

“We’ve had situations where people were approached,” Blandino shockingly said. “We’ve always told our game officials because they’re in hotels — they’re traveling around during the season — we didn’t want them wearing NFL-branded gear. We didn’t want them to be [conspicuous] because someone sees them and, ‘Oh, those are the NFL officials,’ and then you never know. You don’t know who you’re gonna come across. And they know that they’re supposed to go to NFL security if something like that happens. And that has happened in the past.

“They’re not allowed to go…if they have to go to their casino, maybe in their other job, there’s a speaking engagement, it’s at a casino they can’t go in the sportsbook. They have to let the NFL know that they’re gonna be in Las Vegas for this event and are gonna be staying at wherever. There are a lot of controls in place.”

The good news for fans of the integrity of the NFL game is that Blandino's explanation of the "controls" in place does paint a pretty strict picture.

With that said, all it takes is one referee (See: Donaghy, Tim) to swerve off the beaten path, and this whole thing could come crashing down.