DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum NFL fires official Hugo Cruz

In a stunning move, the NFL has fired down judge Hugo Cruz, number 94, effective immediately, which has been confirmed by 7 sources who have firsthand knowledge of the situation.

This is the first time in the Super Bowl era that the NFL has fired an official in the middle of the regular season. Previously, the NFL has suspended officials for major mistakes and, if warranted, dropped the official in the offseason. Others had their fate sealed early in the season, but completed the rest of the year, as had happened to a rookie official who fell asleep during a preseason clinic. (He never saw a second season.)

The NFL Referees Association has not responded to our requests for comment, and an NFL spokesman declined to comment.

One of the sources confirmed that Cruz was not “maintaining a very high level of performance over a sustained period,” while another told Football Zebras in March that Cruz’s future with the league was already in jeopardy. This is partially borne out by his lack of postseason assignments for the two seasons he would have qualified for, not counting assignment as an alternate last season. Another oddity that our sources could not find a reason for was that Cruz was assigned to a different crew for 3 of the 6 regular season games he has worked this year. He was assigned to Brad Allen’s crew in Week 6 when a crucial missed false start call should have nullified a Chargers touchdown (or, more accurately, the play would have been shut down long before that).



Los Angeles Chargers
✔
@Chargers
Have a day, @TyrellWilliams_!

2:28 PM - Oct 14, 2018
578
254 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy
Even though the miscall was very significant, no call on its own would prompt a firing. Basic human resources training would tell you that there is a document trail of transgressions that will make the case. It is, apparently, the last straw for senior vice president of officiating Al Riveron. Cruz was off last week, so the Week 6 Chargers-Browns game was his last.

As surprising as a midseason firing is, any firing for that matter is a rare occurrence. Although there are cases of officials seemingly coerced into retirement, mostly to manage turnover, there have been very few outright terminations. In the last 10 years, one official was dismissed for an undisclosed off-field issue, and another was dismissed due to performance following a crucial error in the season finale. That’s it. Notably, the NFL attempted to terminate 8 officials due to performance issues in 2003; the NFLRA was able to successfully get most of them rehired or assigned to the replay booth.

But one source said, as surprising as the move is, when an official does not perform well “there are consequences, which can include termination of employment.”

Cruz’s ascension to the NFL happened almost as quickly as his downfall. Before joining the NFL in 2015, Cruz was recruited by former NFL referee Gerry Austin, who is the head of football officiating for Conference USA. Cruz worked for 5 seasons, where he was assigned to 2 bowl games, a conference championship game, and 2 East-West Shrine games. The NFL brought him in as a preseason development official in the first 2 seasons the program existed, leading to his hire the following season. He is the second official to have left the NFL after entering the league through the development program; classmate Ed Walker retired during the last offseason due to an injury.

Cruz has also worked as a minor league baseball umpire.

Referee Carl Cheffers will now have a vacancy on his crew which can be handled in one or more of these ways: (1) Line judge Mike Spanier is a swing official this season, which means he is placed on a different crew or wherever needed, and occasionally substitutes as a down judge. Spanier could finish out the season on Cheffers’ crew. (2) With multiple teams on bye weeks now, more officials are drawing bye weeks. A down judge or line judge could work during their regularly scheduled off week. (3) An official can work a Thursday night game and a Sunday or Monday game in the same week.

We began this season saying that Riveron needed a good season for job security. Unless the decision came from his superiors, Riveron is sending a clear message to the staff by taking such an unprecedented step and not waiting until the end of the season.

http://www.footballzebras.com/2018/10/nfl-fires-down-judge-hugo-cruz/

Now they need to get rid of Hochuli for saying it's OK to spear a player in the head.

Excellent. The refs should be held accountable. Officiating has been horrendous across the board.

This is the first time in the Super Bowl era that the NFL has fired an official in the middle of the regular season.

Seems drastic. They didn't really point out a history of blown calls. One may wonder if he was "on the take". I read the related link in the article about previous suspensions, only seven in about 50 years lol. Seems that you can get away with a lot once you're "in the club".

good. If players/coaches/GMs can be fired anytime, why not officials?

WOW .... i said i wanted to know who was the official on the SD blown false start ... and lo and behold look WHO GETS FIRED cause he STINKS ...

I also said i know that 3 of the other officials that have blown calls against us our 3 of the lowest rated officials out there and i didn’t know who blew the SD call ... NOW WE DO ... and HE STUNK ... if i would have known his name it would not have shocked me at all ... he shoud have been out of the league a few years ago ...

Nothing ever happens to officials ..... ...

Its almost like i’m Nostradamus when it comes to this stuff ... once again ... NOT BAD FOR A POP WARNER WARRIOR OFFICIAL ...

NFL wanted folks to know for a change so they did it mid season then made it public ... the fact it got “leaked” tells me there panicking ...

There are at least two more who will be sent out to pasture after the year ... there both older R’s that should have been gone a few years ago .... one of them is responsible for one of our hose jobs and has been allowed to linger cause of who he is and cause of a boatload of pre-mature retirements starting with Mike Carey 3 or 4 years ago and continuing through last years 4 shockers ...

Someone posted that this was drastic. I kinda agree - i bet there is more to it that the NFL is letting on.

I would not put it past that the guy had some cash on the game (s).

....

If he was on the take he wouldn’t have made a call that blatantly bad .... sheesh ... no ones that’s STUPID ... *L* ...

2ndly at what point after the 1st quarter was SD not covering ever in doubt ..,.

Come on bro ... i expect more from u in the whining about officials arena ... step your game up my friend ... ...

Oh they are, believe me.

If I am not mistaken, it was 7-3 at this point.

I think it was 14-3. 55 seconds to go in the second.



Obviously, I don't know how to embed tweets.

I was going to go look at my link as there is a video of the call. It was 14-3, not sure of how much time was left.

Guess the site crashed from so many hits on people interested in this topic, lol.

I thought it was on that big play to Williams.....

Either way 14-3 7-3, if you had the over, you needed points to start going up.

Well, that tweet, that I can't embed, clearly showed the score of 14-3, and the time on the clock was 55 seconds to go in the 2nd quarter.

If there is one thing I've learned in this life, it is to never underestimate Stupid.

In the 1st or 2nd quarter ....*LOL* ...

Nevermind ... not sure why i even bother ... the fact your gonna defend that call as being a sign the fix might be in is silly on so many levels .... starting with the fact he’d have to have a crystal ball to know that play was going to end up in a TD ... i mean ... WHAT R THE ODDS ... sorry bro ... its just silly to think that’d be a “fix is in” call for many reasons ....

Believe u that there that dumb ... sure ... may i ask a few questions before just blindly believing u ....

how many officials u know that have officiated ANY SPORT much less football or the NFL ...

Serious question ... lets start there ... how many people do u know that OFFICIATE ANY SPORT from the youngest of youth levels on up ... and don’t be a donkeys butt ... ...

Please tell me the number of officials u ACTUALLY KNOW and witch sports they officiate ..

Do that and then we’ll move on to the next question ...

Thank you sir.

What happenend .... i cant read anything ... types tosmall ...

Nevermind ... is wont be able to read your replies ... *L* ...

Guess i’m Out ... not sure what happenend ... i can barely read this ... *L* ...

Have fun dawgs ,,,,,!

You probably changed the zoom level on your browser

Can confirm @footballzebras report that the @NFL has fired down judge Hugo Cruz. It was for performance reasons, and not for just one call, either. Unprecedented move during the season. Story coming soon.

https://twitter.com/SeifertESPN/status/1055530928087257088

Or everyone could just type in caps ... *L* ...

Its only this thread .... wierd ...

I pressed them .... nuttin happend ...

Am i suppose to be in a “specific” place to press them ... i’m ASSuming at the same time? ...

I really wanna see what willl said ... he’s really good at moving the goal posts and i wanna see where he moved them to this time ... i’d Bet he didn’t answer my question and we changed “topics” within the subject ...

Please bold out yes or no to that question ...

Thanks ... GREAT IDEA by the way ... i came back to see if it magically changed ... *LOL* ...

The number of words in each line is like quadruple the number of words that are usually on a line ... is there sumptin that i did that cause that/ ...

Pm please if u have an answer ... thanks dawgs ..

Hopefully, things look more normal now.

Every once in awhile u guys are all right ...

Where’s that LOVE BUTTON i requested ....

Thanks ... let me go see what will did with the goal posts ... *LOL* ...

Thanks again ...

Just an FYI

This same crew is dong the game this weekend against stoolers.

The home team won the first four games he officiated. The dismissal leaves a vacancy on Carl Cheffers' crew, who was scheduled to work the Browns road game against the Pittsburgh Steelers this weekend

https://247sports.com/nfl/cleveland-brow...etime-123744128

Cool ....

So u actually know 3 that have done football at the HS level ... and u have “blown a whistle” yourself ...

My point ... patience young man ... patience ... ...

How long did u do softball? ... when u say softball ... slow pitch ... fast pitch ... men/women/hs/youth .. what level? ...

And like i said ... for it to happen during the year there panicking .. i said there is consequences and they do let people go .. this confirms that in spades ... no? ...

It was more than one call .. WAY MORE than one call ... he’s been bad since day 1 ...

And i must apologize ... u did not move the goal posts ...

My premise does hold true that no one would be that stupid to make that call then ... ask me why i will tell u and we can skip a bunch of my questions ... your call ... ...

I’d prefer to keep asking questions ... its fun .... *L* ...

Goal post?

I know enough refs to know that you guys think you are some fraternal order that cant do no wrong and will stick up for each other no how horrible a call is.

FYI, I also don't think guys making 30-50 bucks a game to ref a HS game is the same as an NFL official making anywhere between 25-70K a year for part time work. They should be held to a higher standard if that is where you are going with your comments.

Is it the same crew we had for the bolts game? ... i didnt read the kink ... is that what it says? ... that would be odd to have the same crew so close to each other .... that would be HORRIBLE ASSINGING ......

U should never get the same crew in that short a time span in between ... that’s ASKING FOR TROUBLE ...

Wow ... that shocks me ...

So you are saying that in no way shape or form a referee would ever throw a game in favor of their team, or maybe a wager they may have made or a family member may have made? You main defense is these guys are human and make mistakes, right?

So your telling me these humans who make mistakes all the time, wouldn't make a mistake in doing that?

Maybe they've been instructed to throw us a bone with a few make-up calls?

That's what the article said.

I agree, heck even Diam who cant see the words on the post could have called that!

U don’t know me at all bro ... not even a little bit if thats what u think ...

Like i said somewhere else ... u guys IGNORE the fact i’ve Admitted we’ve been hosed and theres been some horrifick calls agains us that there’s NO EXCUSE FOR ...

I defend what I KNOW to be DEFENDABLE ...

I NEVER defended this call ... or some of the others ...

But u guys are to busy focusing on the calls that i call u out on cause your talking out your behinds .. ...

Lets finish up the questioning so i can be proven right AGAIN and we can move on .. ...

Good.. One down 2 to go..

There go the goalposts ... ...

When i’m Done with my line of questioning u may cross examine ....

PS. How much u know about the backround checks these guys go through today ... NEVERMIND ... we’ll save that for my re-examination after your cross examination ...

GOAL POSTS STAY WHERE THERE AT FOR NOW ...

Cool, how many background checks did the NBA refs that got busted for throwing games go through?

Ahhh .... u and the KING WHNER are having a bash diam party ... can i come ... i love parties .. *L* ..

NFL fires down judge Hugo Cruz, effective immediately
3:20 PM ET
Kevin Seifert

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/25082276/nfl-fires-judge-hugo-cruz-effective-immediately

The NFL has taken the highly unusual step of firing down judge Hugo Cruz for performance reasons, sources confirmed to ESPN on Thursday.

Cruz last worked in Week 6 and is no longer an NFL employee.

Cruz, who joined the NFL in 2015, was responsible for one high-profile mistake this season. He missed an obvious false start by Los Angeles Chargers left tackle Russell Okung on a scoring play in Week 6 against the Cleveland Browns. He did not work in Week 7.

Otherwise, the details of the league's decision -- including other mistakes Cruz is presumed to have made -- are unknown. An NFL spokesman declined to comment and representatives of the NFL Referees Association did not respond to a request for comment.

The news was first reported by FootballZebras.com, which tracks college and pro football officiating trends. According to the website, the NFL has never fired an official in-season during the Super Bowl era because of performance.

Sources reached by ESPN insisted there was no indication that Cruz committed an off-field mistake or that his firing was in any way disciplinary.

The NFL grades officials on their performance on every play of every game. The league has occasionally suspended or re-assigned officials for mistakes of game administration, but it evaluates their careers on a yearly basis by placing each in one of three tiers.

Tier I is for the top performers, Tier II is for mid-level grades and Tier III is for the lowest-performing officials in a given year. Historically, two consecutive seasons in the third tier makes an official vulnerable to termination.

That system is designed to prevent instant evaluations based on a single mistake or a series of closely-timed mistakes.

The NFL's quick decision on Cruz will send shock waves through the officiating ranks. Officials who once could be assured that their season would be evaluated through a larger lens will now be left to wonder if they could receive a career-ending phone call after one bad game.