The ground stop order issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday has now affected the NFL after having an impact on this weekend’s college football games.
On Saturday morning, the NFL announced that several officiating assignments for Week 10 have been adjusted. Officials were reassigned to games that are within driving distance of their hometowns.
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Barry Anderson and Duane Heydt, who normally serve as umpires, along with side judge Don Willard will take on referee duties on Sunday.
Anderson will officiate the Jacksonville Jaguars-Tennessee Titans game in Tennessee;; Heydt has been assigned to work the Carolina Panthers-New Orleans Saints game in New Orleans; and Willard will have double-duty first refereeing the Miami Dolphins-Indianapolis Colts game in Indianapolis at 1 p.m. ET before making the trip to Cincinnati for Sunday night’s game between the Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers at 8:20 p.m. ET.
“Each of the league’s 17 officiating crews have a backup referee identified, and that individual trains throughout the year to work at the referee position should the need arise,” the NFL said.
The ground stop order was put in place on Friday due to a “temporary telecommunications outage” affecting air traffic control, the FAA announced.
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That stop was lifted as of 8:15 p.m. ET Friday, but even with flights allowed to resume, it led to kickoff changes for some college games. Almost all of the Power Four conferences have teams that were prevented from reaching their destinations. Only the ACC has every team already ready to go. One SEC matchup — Ole Miss vs. Oklahoma — was postponed to Sunday.
“It’ll be slow,” Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said Friday about the resumption of nationwide air travel.
It’s the second nationwide ground stop since 9/11, per ABC News, which noted that this last happened in 2023. At the time, pilots were unable to access their pre-departure paperwork because the FAA NOTAM (Notice To all Air Missions) system — used to disseminate flight hazards and real-time restrictions to pilots — went down.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
