Johnny Grier (April 16, 1947 – March 8, 2022) was an

American football official In gridiron football, an official is a person who has responsibility in enforcing the rules and maintaining the order of the game. During professional and most college football games, seven officials operate on the field. Since 2015, Division ...

for 23 years in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) from 1981 to 2004. He began in the NFL as a field judge before becoming the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

referee in the history of the NFL with the start of the

1988 NFL season The 1988 NFL season was the 69th regular season of the National Football League. The Cardinals relocated from St. Louis, Missouri to the Phoenix, Arizona area becoming the Phoenix Cardinals but remained in the NFC East division. The playoff ra ...

. Grier officiated in one

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

, Super Bowl XXII in 1988, which was his last game as a field judge and the same game in which Doug Williams became the first African-American

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

to win the

. On the field, he wore uniform number 23, which is now worn by

Jerome Boger Jerome Leonard Boger ( ; born July 1, 1955) is an American football official in the National Football League (NFL) since the 2004 NFL season. He has worn uniform number 23 since 2006; before that, he wore uniform number 109. He started in the le ...

, another African-American referee. Grier attended college at the

University of the District of Columbia The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a public historically black land-grant university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1851 and is the only public university in the city. UDC is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall ...

. Grier began officiating football at age 18 and started as a unbar High School

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

official in 1965, later moved on to

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

in 1972, and eventually the NFL in 1981. In 1989, a year after becoming a referee, he oversaw the head coaching debut of

Art Shell Arthur Lee Shell Jr. (born November 26, 1946) is an American former professional football player in the American Football League (AFL) and later in the National Football League (NFL), a Hall of Fame offensive tackle and a two-time former head co ...

, the first black NFL head coach in the NFL's modern era. Grier served as an officiating supervisor for the NFL and previously as Supervisor of Football Officials for the

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern and the Mid-Atlantic United States. It participates in the National C ...

(MEAC). His career ended abruptly during the

2004 NFL season The 2004 NFL season was the 85th regular season of the National Football League. With New England as the defending league champions, regular season play was held from September 9, 2004 to January 2, 2005. Hurricanes forced the rescheduling o ...

when he was forced to retire due to a leg injury suffered during a series of games. He was replaced by the back judge on his crew, Scott Green, who had previous experience as a referee in

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally f ...

. He later served as an officiating supervisor for the NFL and previously as Supervisor of Football Officials for the

(MEAC). After leaving the NFL as a Supervisor of Football Officials, he was hired as a PAC 12 Supervisor of Officiails, were he later retired. Grier died in Pasadena, Maryland, on March 8, 2022, at the age of 74.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grier, Johnny 1947 births 2022 deaths 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people African-American sports officials National Football League officials Sportspeople from Charlotte, North Carolina University of the District of Columbia alumni