Phil Luckett

Last updated February 18, 2024

Phil Luckett is a retired official in the National Football League (NFL), having served from 1991 to 2005, and again in 2007. His officiating uniform number was 59. He entered the NFL as a field judge in 1991 and officiated Super Bowl XXXI, his last game at that position before he became a referee in 1997 after Red Cashion and Howard Roe announced their retirements. He also refereed in the WLAF/NFL Europe, including being assigned World Bowl '97. He returned to the NFL back judge position in 2001, three years after the NFL switched the titles of back judge and field judge.^[1] He took a leave of absence from the NFL for the 2006 season. In 2007, he returned to officiating as the back judge on Bill Carollo's crew and retired at the end of the season. After retiring, he was employed by the league as an officiating supervisor.

Much of his tenure was surrounded by controversial calls; most notably:

During an overtime coin toss in a November 1998 game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Detroit Lions the coin landed on tails and Luckett awarded the toss to the Lions.^[2] Steelers captain Jerome Bettis said he had called "tails", but Luckett insisted that Bettis had called "heads-tails".^[3] According to NFL rules, a team's first call is the one the referee will use, and Luckett noted in his game report to the NFL that Bettis was attempting to deceive.^[4] The Lions scored a field goal on their first possession of the overtime to win the game. The game tape was later enhanced, and Bettis is clearly heard saying "hea-tails." A sideline microphone enhancement also clearly had Bettis telling coach Bill Cowher that (Bettis) had said "hea-tails."^[2]^[5]

Following this incident, the coin toss rules were changed. Now, instead of calling the toss while the coin is in the air, the team captain chooses heads or tails before the coin is flipped and the referee confirms the selection before he flips the coin.

The following week Luckett and his crew were assigned to Giants Stadium for the game between the New York Jets and the Seattle Seahawks, a game with playoff implications for both teams. Late in the game, with his team trailing, Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde attempted a quarterback sneak near the Seahawks' goal line and Luckett's head linesman Earnie Frantz signaled that he had scored the go-ahead touchdown. Various television replays showed Testaverde was clearly down by contact on the play and never crossed the goal line. Luckett, however, did not reverse the call and the play stood as the winning score in New York's 32–31 victory. At the time, the NFL did not use instant replay to review officials' decisions; the call would be cited as a major reason why the NFL reinstituted instant replay (albeit with a different system from the original) after a seven-season absence the following season.^[6]

He was also the referee when the Music City Miracle play occurred during the 1999 Playoffs between the Buffalo Bills and the Tennessee Titans. Despite protests, Luckett ruled that a legal lateral pass had been thrown for the game-winning touchdown, a controversial call that was much disputed, even years later.^[7]

Luckett was the league supervisor assigned to the 2012 Green Bay Packers–Seattle Seahawks game that contributed to the end of the 2012 NFL referee lockout.^[8]

Related Research Articles

Super Bowl XL was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Seattle Seahawks and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2005 season. The Steelers defeated the Seahawks by the score of 21–10. The game was played on February 5, 2006, at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. It is currently the most recent Super Bowl broadcast on ABC who lost the rights to broadcast Super Bowl games in the next NFL TV contract and the first where all aspects of the game itself were aired in HD. This was the last of 10 straight Super Bowls to feature a team seeking its first win.

Jerome Abram Bettis Sr. is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons, primarily with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Nicknamed "the Bus" due to his large size and forceful running style, he played college football at the University of Notre Dame and was selected 10th overall by the Los Angeles Rams in the 1993 NFL Draft. Bettis was a member of the Rams for three seasons before being traded to the Steelers, where he spent the remainder of his career. A six-time Pro Bowl and two-time first-team All-Pro selection, he is regarded as one of the greatest power runners of all time and ranks eighth in NFL rushing yards. He retired in 2006 after helping the Steelers win a Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XL, the franchise's first in over two decades. Bettis was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015.

In gridiron football, an official is a person who has responsibility in enforcing the rules and maintaining the order of the game.

The 1998 NFL season was the 79th regular season of the National Football League (NFL). The season culminated with Super Bowl XXXIII, with the Denver Broncos defeating the Atlanta Falcons 34–19 at Pro Player Stadium in Miami. The Broncos had won their first thirteen games, the best start since the undefeated 1972 Dolphins, and were tipped by some to have a realistic chance at winning all nineteen games. The Minnesota Vikings became the first team since the 1968 Baltimore Colts to win all but one of their regular season games and not win the Super Bowl. After no team had won 14 regular season games since the 1992 49ers, three teams went 14–2 or better for the only time in a 16-game season.

The 1976 NFL season was the 57th regular season of the National Football League. The league expanded to 28 teams with the addition of Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This fulfilled one of the conditions agreed to in 1966 for the 1970 AFL–NFL merger, which called for the league to expand to 28 teams by 1970 or soon thereafter.

Pete Morelli is a retired American football official who worked in the National Football League (NFL) from 1997 to 2018. He wore uniform number 135.

Jerry Markbreit is a former American football referee in the National Football League (NFL) for 23 seasons and became one of the most recognizable referees in the game. Markbreit officiated football games for 33 seasons. From 1965 to 1975, Markbreit officiated college football games in the Big Ten Conference. He then joined the NFL in 1976 as a line judge on the crew of Tommy Bell before being promoted to the head referee position in just his second year. His uniform number in the league was 9, which is now worn by Mark Perlman. In his 23 seasons in the NFL, Markbreit had 25 postseason assignments: two wild card games, 10 divisional games, eight conference championships, one Pro Bowl (1978), and four Super Bowls and was an alternate in Super Bowl XIX, Super Bowl XXII, and Super Bowl XXVIII. To date, he is the only NFL head referee to officiate four Super Bowl games.

Jim Tunney is a former American football official in the National Football League (NFL) from 1960 to 1990. In his 31 years as an NFL official, Tunney received a record 29 post-season assignments, including ten Championship games and Super Bowls VI, XI and XII and named as an alternate in Super Bowl XVIII. He remains the only referee who has worked consecutive Super Bowls and likely will be the only one to do so.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Carey (American football)</span> American football player and official (born 1949)

Michael Carey is a former American football official in the National Football League (NFL). His uniform number was 94. Prior to his officiating career, he played college football as a running back for Santa Clara University.

Anthony Joseph Corrente is a former American football official in the National Football League (NFL) who served for 26 years from 1995 until his retirement in 2021. He wore uniform number 99. He was the referee of Super Bowl XLI. He served as the Coordinator of Football Officiating for the Pac-12 Conference from June 2011 until he resigned this position in October 2014.

Bill Leavy was an American football official who officiated in the National Football League (NFL) from the 1995 through 2014 seasons, wore uniform number 127, and was also a retired San Jose, California police officer and firefighter, serving for 27 years. In his twenty-year NFL officiating career, Leavy was assigned to fifteen playoff games, including two Super Bowls. He was selected as a back judge on the Super Bowl XXXIV officiating crew in 2000 and most recently headed up the Super Bowl XL officiating crew as referee in 2006.

Dick Hantak is a former American football official in the National Football League (NFL). He was in the NFL for 25 years between 1978 and 2003. He began his NFL officiating career as a back judge and became a referee eight years later. During his career, he officiated in two Super Bowls, Super Bowl XVII in 1983 as a back judge and later as a referee in Super Bowl XXVII in 1993, both at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California and selected as an alternate for Super Bowl XXXII in 1998. He was one of the first officials to wear a three-digit uniform number, wearing number 105 except for 1979–81, when officials were numbered separately by position.

The tuck rule was a controversial rule in American football used by the National Football League from 1999 until 2013. It stated:

NFL Rule 3, Section 22, Article 2, Note 2. When [an offensive] player is holding the ball to pass it forward, any intentional forward movement of his arm starts a forward pass, even if the player loses possession of the ball as he is attempting to tuck it back toward his body. Also, if the player has tucked the ball into his body and then loses possession, it is a fumble.

Scott H. Green is a former American football official in the National Football League (NFL) from the 1991 NFL season until the 2013 NFL season. He had officiated Super Bowls XXXVI in 2002, XXXVIII in 2004, and was the referee for XLIV in 2010. Green was also the head of the NFL Referees Association and led negotiations during the 2012 NFL referee lockout.

Gordon McCarter was an American football official in the National Football League (NFL) from 1967 to 1995. He joined the NFL as a line judge and back judge in 1967 before being promoted to referee with the start of the 1974 NFL season when Jack Reader was named Assistant Supervisor of Officials at NFL headquarters in New York City. McCarter is most likely remembered for a 1995 game in which Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher stuffed a Polaroid photo in McCarter's uniform pocket while leaving the field. McCarter wore the uniform number 48 for the majority of his career.

Mark Hittner is an American football official in the National Football League (NFL) since the beginning of the 1997 NFL season. He works as a head linesman and wears the uniform number 28. He is most notable for officiating in three Super Bowls, most recently in Super Bowl XL on February 5, 2006, between the Seattle Seahawks and Pittsburgh Steelers.

John W. Parry is an American former football official who worked in the National Football League (NFL) from 2000 through the 2018 season. He wore uniform number 132 and was the referee for two Super Bowls. He is the rules analyst for NFL telecasts on ABC and ESPN including Monday Night Football and postseason games.

The 1998 Seattle Seahawks season was the franchise's 23rd season in the National Football League (NFL), the 23rd playing their home games at the Kingdome, and the fourth and final under head coach head coach Dennis Erickson. They matched their 8–8 record from 1997, but a late-season loss to the New York Jets came due to a controversial call when Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde ran in a touchdown but was downed short of the goalline yet the play was ruled a touchdown; the loss helped knock Seattle out of the playoffs for the tenth consecutive season.

The 1997 Pittsburgh Steelers season was the franchise's 65th season as a professional sports franchise and as a member of the National Football League.

Carl Cheffers is an American football official who officiates games for the National Football League (NFL). He has been an NFL official since the 2000 NFL season.

References

↑ http://refereestats.tripod.com/crewArc.htm Behind the Football Stripes officiating crew archive
1 2 Topp, Bill (May 1999). "Heads or Tails?". Referee. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved March 17, 2007.
↑ "'Heads'? 'Tails'? Referee Chooses, Then Steelers Lose". New York Times. November 27, 1998. Retrieved January 17, 2016. Referee Phil Luckett told pool reporters after the game Bettis had called 'heads-tails' and Luckett went with the first thing he heard. 'I did not say heads-tails,' Bettis said
↑ "Luckett wins coin-flip flap". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. April 27, 1999. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
↑ "11/26/1998 - The Turkey Day coin flip". SB Nation. November 26, 2010. Retrieved January 17, 2016. Pittsburgh television station KDKA enhanced the audio and found that Bettis had given two separate commands. Removing all ambiguity, a sideline conversation between Bettis and Cowher was also picked up, one where the Steelers back clearly defines that he said 'hea-tails.'
↑ Anderson, Dave (March 18, 1999). "Sports of The Times; Just Thank Testaverde For Replay". New York Times .
↑ "Tennessee vs. Buffalo, 1/8/00". NFL Films Game of the Week . July 11, 2007. NFL Network.
↑ King, Peter (September 25, 2012). "Lack of communication ultimately led to embarrassing Monday gaffe". SI.com. Retrieved September 30, 2012. Daopoulos pointed out that a veteran referee ... would go under the hood and not need advice from the replay official upstairs. But in this case, Daopoulos believes both the replay official, Howard Slavin, and the NFL officiating supervisor, former ref Phil Luckett, were speaking to Elliott ... Daopoulos believes they should have said to him, 'This is an interception.' ... The next question, obviously, is this: What were Slavin and Luckett telling Elliott? Obviously it wasn't enough to convince him to overturn the call.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] ttp://refereestats.tripod.com/crewArc.htm Behind the Football Stripes officiating crew archive

[HeadsOrTails-2] 1 2 Topp, Bill (May 1999). "Heads or Tails?". Referee. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved March 17, 2007.

[3] "'Heads'? 'Tails'? Referee Chooses, Then Steelers Lose". New York Times. November 27, 1998. Retrieved January 17, 2016. Referee Phil Luckett told pool reporters after the game Bettis had called 'heads-tails' and Luckett went with the first thing he heard. 'I did not say heads-tails,' Bettis said

[4] "Luckett wins coin-flip flap". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. April 27, 1999. Retrieved January 17, 2016.

[5] "11/26/1998 - The Turkey Day coin flip". SB Nation. November 26, 2010. Retrieved January 17, 2016. Pittsburgh television station KDKA enhanced the audio and found that Bettis had given two separate commands. Removing all ambiguity, a sideline conversation between Bettis and Cowher was also picked up, one where the Steelers back clearly defines that he said 'hea-tails.'

[6] Anderson, Dave (March 18, 1999). "Sports of The Times; Just Thank Testaverde For Replay". New York Times .

[7] "Tennessee vs. Buffalo, 1/8/00". NFL Films Game of the Week . July 11, 2007. NFL Network.

[SI20120925-8] King, Peter (September 25, 2012). "Lack of communication ultimately led to embarrassing Monday gaffe". SI.com. Retrieved September 30, 2012. Daopoulos pointed out that a veteran referee ... would go under the hood and not need advice from the replay official upstairs. But in this case, Daopoulos believes both the replay official, Howard Slavin, and the NFL officiating supervisor, former ref Phil Luckett, were speaking to Elliott ... Daopoulos believes they should have said to him, 'This is an interception.' ... The next question, obviously, is this: What were Slavin and Luckett telling Elliott? Obviously it wasn't enough to convince him to overturn the call.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]