NFL referee Jerome Boger, who threw a flag on the ‘Seattle Mariners’ last season, is retiring

After 19 seasons with the NFL, long-time referee Jerome Boger is retiring, according to a tweet sent out by NFL Officiating on Thursday afternoon. Boger has been a mainstay for years, and has officiated some big games, to say the least. No specific reason was provided for his decision. He has officiated a great number of contests, but many Seattle Seahawks fans are likely to remember him most recently for this particularly endearing moment, as seen in the clip below.

Mark Schultz of Football Zebras had the following to say of Boger’s career:

“Boger retires after 19 NFL seasons. He worked as a line judge and, starting in 2006, referee. He wore number 109 to start his career at line judge and switched to number 23 when he became a referee – to honor retired official and mentor Johnny Grier.

Boger worked a total of seven playoff assignments on the field, all but one at the referee position. He worked two wild card games, four divisional games and Super Bowl XLVII.”

In 2020, the NFL honored Boger by having him lead the first all Black officiating crew in league history for the Week 11 Monday Night Football Game.”

Super Bowl XLVII, of course, was the first of two Super Bowl losses by the San Francisco 49ers during the 2010s. That game featured an extend power outage that caused a significant delay, which Boger handled as well as anybody possibly could have. Referees are typically on the receiving end of criticism on a weekly basis, and their jobs are undoubtedly both hard and thankless. This alone makes Boger’s 19-year career even more impressive.

In addition to his retirement, NFL Officiating also announced the retirement of three other officials in the tweet below.