From August to January, NFL officials traveled across the United States every week, and sometimes even abroad, to officiate at some of the world's most watched sporting events. However, once the final whistle blew, another job often awaited them the next morning.
Among the 121 referees identified by NFL, many have full-time jobs outside of rugby: Clete Blakeman is a personal injury lawyer in Nebraska, Brad Rogers is a senior lecturer at the College of Business at Texas Tech University, and Shawn Hochuli is a financial consultant working in California. These unusual combinations of careers have recently become popular on social media.
However, these are not just side hustles used to supplement the salary of NFL. According to data from Sports Illustrated, the average annual income for referees in 2025 was $205,000, and in 2026, the compensation per match is said to have increased by 10%. On the contrary, many referees have established their careers in other fields before entering NFL and continue to engage in those jobs while also performing their refereeing duties.
Shawn Smith joined NFL in 2015, but has been engaged in auditing work for the past 30 years. He says that there are more similarities between these two career paths than many people imagine.
“Most people don’t want to see auditors, and most people don’t care about referees either,” Smith told the Detroit News affiliate WXYZ earlier this year, “But one of the things we must do is to remain objective, independent, and maintain discipline in our area of expertise.”
This investment goes far beyond just the competition days. NFL indicates that during the season, referees spend over 30 hours each week studying videos and rule manuals. They also have to attend meetings with their respective referee groups and review evaluations from supervisors, which makes their officiating role feel like a second full-time job.
There's no need to choose just one career path. A NFL referee said, 'Do both.'
Adrian Hill is another example. This referee, with 16 years of NFL enforcement experience, is also a chief software engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. For him, these two jobs require completely different decision-making approaches.
“In NFL, you make instant decisions on the spot, and everything passes by in a flash,” Hill said to CBS Baltimore in 2021, “but on the side of the spacecraft, the situation is completely different. We are very cautious when making decisions and weigh all the options.”
But law enforcement also has its own pressures.
“I’m under more pressure on the NFL stage,” said Hill. “When the lights come on, we blow the whistle, and the match starts in real time. If you’re wearing a heart rate monitor, my heart rate soars to its highest. I know people say it’s just a game, but 20 million people are watching, and you have to make decisions in an instant.”
Reaching this level requires years of effort. NFL requires those who intend to become referees to have at least 10 years of experience in officiating rugby, of which at least 5 years should be spent officiating in inter-university competitions or lower-level professional leagues. In addition, applicants must be in excellent physical condition and must belong to a certified rugby referee association, or they must have previous experience as players or coaches.
If these conditions are met, the application process is relatively simple: candidates will be invited to mail their university officiating schedules from the past three seasons to the headquarters of NFL located in Manhattan.
For Hill, pursuing two high-demanding careers simultaneously proves that people don't have to choose just one path.
“If someone tells a child that it’s impossible for them to be both a professional football player and a doctor at the same time, you’d think that’s absolutely impossible,” said Hill, “But if you have that motivation and determination, you can make it happen. Don’t listen to them. You can do both.”
Olympic athletes and Generation Z also juggle multiple jobs, but for different reasons than the NFL referees.
NFL Judges are not the only group of people who balance two completely different professions at the same time. For some, their second pursuit begins out of interest; for others, it is a means to make a living.
Comedian and actor Ken Jeong is one such example. His initial profession was as a licensed doctor, but later he began to pursue a career in comedy on a part-time basis.
“By day I'm a doctor, and at night, as you know, I'm a comedian,” he said to NPR in 2014. “It's actually just a way for me to relieve stress. In many ways, it's similar to golf. Most doctors regard golf as a hobby, while my hobby is being a comedian.”
In the end, he was able to leave the medical field and pursue comedy as a full-time career. However, for many people, it is necessary to hold two jobs simultaneously.
Earlier this year, several American Olympic athletes gained attention for balancing full-time jobs with the demands of top-level competition. Alpine skier Keely Cashman represented the U.S. team in the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics, and for a portion of each year, she works as a barista in her small town in California.
Meanwhile, Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin became the first American pair to win a medal in the Olympic mixed doubles curling event, taking home the silver medal. Outside of competition, Thiesse works as a laboratory technician at a mercury testing lab, while Dropkin is a full-time real estate agent.
“I’m very grateful to have a job that allows me to pay my bills, so that I can participate in curling competitions,” Thiesse said earlier this year.
For many young workers facing a tough job market and an increasingly severe employment shortage, this balance is becoming more and more common – by employment shortage, it is meant that the jobs they hold do not require the degrees they have obtained. A study by Ernst & Young found that 39% of Generation Z individuals hold both a full-time job and a “side job”.
