Countdown To Kickoff - NFL Football Operations

Imagine hosting an event that will be attended by 70,000 people, with millions more watching on TV. As everyone arrives at the venue or tunes in, they fully expect the event to start on time and entertain them for the next three hours, without any major glitches. 

View List of Game Day Jobs

Here are some of the people working to put on an NFL game, week after week:

• Airway management physician (certified in rapid sequence intubation)
• Ball crew
• Certified athletic trainer (AT) injury spotters
• Chain crew
• Coach-to-Coach communication technicians
• Coach-to-Player communication technicians
• Cutoff switch operator (for coach-to-player communications)
• Down and Distance operator
• Emergency Response Physicians
• Enhanced audio technicians
• Event frequency coordinators
• Football technology representative
• Game clock operator
• Injury video review operators
• Instant Replay assistant
• Instant Replay field operators
• Instant Replay field communicator
• Instant Replay official
• Instant Replay technician
• Instant Replay video operator
• Locker room attendants
• Net crew
• Network’s sideline coordinator
• Network technician 
• NFL Football Operations representative
• NFL security
• NFL sideline TV coordinator
• On-field media coordinators (provided by each club)
• Oxygen attendants
• Paramedics
• Play clock operator
• Local security representative
• Still photo technicians
• Unaffiliated neurotrauma consultants
• Uniform inspectors
• WiFi technicians
• X-ray technicians

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And then imagine making it happen in as many as 13 cities on the same day. Every weekend. For more than six months. 

That’s the tall order facing the NFL’s Game Operations staff week after week as they manage what goes on behind the scenes at every NFL game. Fans have come to expect that the games will run flawlessly and that they can focus their attention instead on the league’s superstars as they display their talents on the field.

And that’s what fans get — week after week, season after season.

They see the results of this hard work in the action on the field. What they often don’t see are the hundreds of people behind the scenes who appear to effortlessly manage the many moving parts and the massive mix of personnel, technology and equipment.

Learn more about the official playing field requirements and guidelines in the Mandatory Practices for NFL Playing Surfaces and the Playing Surface Best Practices guide.

The locker rooms must be fully stocked with the same comforts; footballs must be properly prepared; the playing field has to be certified that it is in compliance with the strict requirements. All of the technology — the communications systems for coaches, players and game officials; Microsoft Surface tablets; coaches’ booth monitors; and instant replay and injury video review systems — must all be functional.

All of the people, cameras and equipment on the field will be in their assigned place, and all of the pregame activity will proceed like clockwork.

NFL Game Operations helps the home team's staff to conduct this symphony. The performance takes scores of seemingly unrelated experts performing disparate tasks, all contributing to one goal — a seamlessly executed football game: medical personnel, uniform inspectors, radio-frequency coordinators and technology troubleshooters, security guards and locker room attendants, ball crew members, clock operators, chain crews and sideline helpers.

A representative from the NFL Football Operations department attends each game to ensure that both teams are complying with league policy and to serve as the communication liaison to the Game Day Operations Center back in New York.

Check out the responsibilities of Gameday Central personnel in New York.

League staff members issue game credentials and parking passes for the NFL game day staff. They coordinate with representatives of the television networks and work with experts who certify that the fields are ready for play. They coordinate scheduling and travel for all officials.

And they do this every week.

Success requires an organized, rigorous system that clearly defines where everyone needs to be, what tasks need to be done, and when they need to be started and completed. NFL Game Operations maintains a detailed checklist and timeline with specific instructions to make sure everything gets done.

It begins seven days before kickoff and continues through the end of the game.