Former Super Bowl referee working Thanksgiving HS game in North Jersey
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Ed Camp probably won’t be wearing his Super Bowl rings on Thanksgiving, but he might show them to you if you ask.
Instead, the Hawthorne resident will be wearing the familiar stripes as an official for the Tenafly-Dumont rivalry game on Thanksgiving morning.
After a lifetime devoted to football, the 70-year-old, who still works for the ACC and the Philadelphia Eagles in various consulting roles, wouldn’t want to be anywhere else than on a high school field on a holiday.
“It’s a tradition,” Camp said with a smile on Nov. 18. “For years, I worked Bergen Catholic and Ridgewood. I used to do Nutley-Belleville on Thanksgiving. I loved working that week. We were never a crew. It was just a bunch of friends getting together to work a game.”
Life after the NFL
Officially retired from the NFL, Camp is still ridiculously active in the world of football officiating. He works for the Atlantic Coast Conference at games every weekend. He still does a handful of high school games when openings pop up (he said Thanksgiving will be his third or fourth game this season). He mentors high school and college officials.
Every Thursday during the season, he makes the trip from home to Philadelphia to work and make calls for the Eagles.
That means Camp might be the perfect person in the world to ask about the legality − or illegality − of the Eagles famous Tush Push QB sneak.
“I have never seen them practice it,” Camp said. “They can’t practice it.”
Of course, he has seen it. Camp notes that the true beauty of the play is the ability of the Eagles' offensive line to fire off just at (or, maybe before) the snap. That’s a skill that people don’t value.
When asked if the play is legal, Camp gives a straight-forward answer.
“Yeah, but it’s getting bad press and the NFL doesn’t take kindly to bad press,” Camp said with a laugh. “They’ve beaten the snap count, but if you remember [Steelers defensive back] Troy Polamalu used to come flying and try to time [the snap] too. It’s a big challenge, but it’s a hard play to officiate.”
Camp calls football his weekly routine, with a golf lesson thrown in every so often. Every official knows what they’re doing on every day. They review film early in the week, get feedback and training from their supervisors, travel to the next assignment for the weekend and do it all over again.
“Ed Camp is widely regarded as one of the greatest officials to ever work,” said Mark Bitar, the North Jersey officials assignor and replay official with the ACC. “Even after a 20-year NFL career and officiating a Super Bowl, he continues to pour into officials at every level. He travels across the country teaching at clinics and camps, and here in New Jersey we’re incredibly fortunate that he still dedicates his time to our cadet classes.”
Camp jokes that even his wife, Lynne, watches film with him. Some. She also took the clock operator test (a test that Ed taught).
“She knocked it out of the park,” Ed said.
He enjoys working with the Eagles one day a week and he even received a Super Bowl ring from the organization after its win in February. He got his own Super Bowl ring from the NFL for working Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta in 2019.
“I’m just happy to get the one earned on the field, and the Eagles are a great organization,” Camp said (sorry Giants fans). “They treat everyone splendidly. [Team owner] Mr. Lurie is a good guy and I like [Coach Nick] Siriani. He’s just a good guy to work for.”
Modern-day officiating
Camp marvels at how being an official has changed. There are actually two crews on every football game in college and the pros, one on the field and the other in the replay booth. There’s constant conversation between the two.
“I usually sit in the press box for the ACC games, but at Pitt I was in the replay booth and those guys are basically a radio broadcast with a play-by-play guy and a color guy and they are calling out, ‘hey, they’re snapping on the 25, they gotta get to the 35, because they have to work just like that, and then they have all the technical stuff, like which angle is going to confirm that play,” Camp said.
What’s next for football officials? Lasers down the sidelines? Location chips in the football?
“The chips originally came from video games where they put [motion sensor] chips on you and they would film you,” Camp said. “Tiger Woods did that for his golf game. I don’t know what are we going to look at next. Hopefully, it will be something to keep the game safe.”
What’s next for Ed Camp? He’d like more time to play golf, perhaps, and more time with Lynne. But he’s still connected to the game. You know it means something when on Thanksgiving, there’s a Super Bowl ref out there.
“His decision to work a Thanksgiving morning high school game in Tenafly-Dumont says everything about who he is,” Bitar said. “It shows his genuine love for the game and his commitment to helping officials grow. Ed never stopped giving back, and that’s what makes him so special.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Ed Camp: Former NFL referee working Thanksgiving game in North Jersey
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