By MARK PURDY | mpurdy@bayareanewsgroup.com | March 10, 2017

Purdy: Television's refereeing voice reaches out to soldiers in a worthy mission

The idea is to match vets with officiating whistles--and it just might work

The idea came to Mike Pereira.while he was driving from his home in Sacramento to a friend’s home in Oregon. You might know Pereira as the former NFL zebra and vice-president of officiating who now explains rules to viewers on Fox network broadcasts. But in this case, he was just a guy behind the wheel with time on his hands.

“I drive by myself,” he said by phone this week. “Six and a half hours. I turn off the radio. I was thinking about my life, about the military guys, although I never served myself, thinking about the struggles some of those guys have, how I might be able to serve them. And I was thinking about the struggles that officials are having today, the declining numbers of people signing up to referee and officiate games.

Mike'l Severe of the Omaha World-Herald and former VP of officiating for the NFL Mike Pereira discuss his new veteran program Battlefields to Ballfields which sponsors service veterans to become referees for various sports.

Mike Pereira interview with Del Rodgers of KCRA-TV (NBC) Sports.

SACRAMENTO, CA – A project two years in the making, ‘Battlefields To Ballfields’ makes its debut today.

Founded by President and Executive Director Mike Pereira, the new foundation will provide scholarships to veterans of the United States Armed Forces who have selflessly served our country with an opportunity to get integrated back into their community through officiating.

By Dave Simon, Referee.com, November 2016

Read the full article here

The ranks of sports officials are peppered with many former members of the U.S. military. They officiate kids’ games, all the way up through the pros. Does military experience provide unique training and lessons that translate well to sports officiating? Are there things other officials can learn from their fellow officials with military backgrounds?

Referee magazine went looking for answers by interviewing a number of officials who made the transition, learned some things along the way and shared tips on why and how a military background gives sports officials a special edge.

By AB Editors, October 2016

There are around 300,000-350,000 total high school sports officials in the U.S. but states like Tennessee, Nevada, and Kansas are all reporting a decrease in registered officials. In fact, Oregon saw a 12 percent decrease in the last three years alone.

Factors like low pay, negative environments and a lack of advancement opportunities are discouraging those who are interested in becoming sport officials. 

By Rich Madrid, October 5, 2016

A new pilot program in Los Angeles founded by Fox Sports rules analyst and former NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira is generating quite a bit of buzz in its first year. It’s called Battlefields to Ballfields, and the program places United States military veterans in the Los Angeles Officials Unit where veterans get a chance to learn the rules of officiating from experienced referees.

Los Angeles Times article by Eric Sondheimer.

If any coach, player or parent feels inclined to lose their composure and start yelling at football official Thomas Harris, trying to provoke a response, good luck. He has been trained to be cool under pressure.