'I'm proud to say I'm from Worcester': Paul King enjoys his dream experience as NFL official

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19-04-2025

'I'm proud to say I'm from Worcester': Paul King enjoys his dream experience as NFL official
PAXTON — The first game Paul King officiated in the NFL was a preseason matchup between the Patriots and Cincinnati Bengals at Gillette Stadium.
Quarterback Tom Brady had the evening off, so he wasn't calling signals for the Pats. But it didn't take long before he slid up next to the rookie ref on the sideline and called him out.
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'He comes over and asks, 'Why didn't you call pass interference,' ' King, 62 and a lifelong Worcester resident, recalled after praising Brady for his elite competitiveness, focus and athleticism.
'My first year in the league, my first preseason game — and I don't call pass interference, it's not in me — so I said, 'I don't do that.' And he said, 'If you want to last in this league, you might want to start calling pass interference.' '
Worcester native Paul King sets up before the snap during a NFL game between the Titans and Jaguars in 2022.
Well, that was in August of 2009, and come mid-May, King will officially begin his 17th season as an NFL umpire, where his focus is primarily on the interior offensive line. So much for the TB12 method of officiating.
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And what a long, wonderful and memorable trip it has been, one King sat down to chat about April 17 inside the Fuller Activities Center at Anna Maria College, where he's teaching Introduction to Youth Sports this semester as part of the sports management curriculum.
'I mean, it's been just beyond any dream you could ever have in terms of being around all those athletes and traveling with elite officials, seeing elite athletes and elite coaches,' King said.
'The speed and the size (of the game) just continues to grow, and it would shock you to see some of the big guys. I look at angles they take on the field — the pursuit angles — and say, 'That 325-pound guy will never get there.' And I'm still wrong every single time.'
King got into officiating as a way to stay involved in football after suffering an injury during his senior season at Doherty High, from which he graduated in 1981.
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He climbed the ladder over the next three decades until he found himself working the 'Granddaddy of Them All' — the Rose Bowl — in 2008. The NFL came calling the next year.
King has been an on-field official for three conference championships and a sideline official for two Super Bowls, XLVIII at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in 2014 and LVI at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles in 2022.
The games are the best part of the job. The travel, though, can be tiresome.
'But the football games and the camaraderie you develop amongst officials you work with,' King said. 'We work with the same crew of nine — seven on the field and two in the booth — for the whole season.
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'So that's kind of like my second family in the fall. We might be together on Thanksgiving or Christmas. You start in training camp where it's 110 degrees, and you finish in January, and it could be zero degrees.'
Umpire Paul King, right, talks with referee Land Clark (130) during the first quarter of a game between the 49ers and Cardinals at Levi's Stadium in 2024.
King has been to all 31 current stadiums and checked the last one off his list when the Bills hosted the Kansas City Chiefs on 'Sunday Night Football' in November at Highmark Stadium in Buffalo.
The Bills Mafia was out in full force and in fine form that evening. The rabid rooters, thankfully, saw their helmeted heroes win, 30-21.
'I'm not sure we would have gotten out alive if Kansas City had beaten them that Sunday in November,' King said with a chuckle. 'I mean, they were throwing stuff at our bus going into the game, and we hadn't even started yet.'
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Central Mass. has sent quite a few players and coaches to the NFL over the years.
Paul King and his daughter Bailey before a NFL game in Pittsburgh.
The current group includes Noah Gray (Leominster), Chris Lindstrom and Sean McKeon (Shepherd Hill), Ifeatu Melifonwu (Grafton), Patrick Ricard (David Prouty), and Isaac Yiadom (Doherty).
Then there's Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo (Grafton) and Jaguars assistant special teams coach Luke Thompson (Burncoat).
'Oh, I know them all,' King said. 'We're Central Mass. guys, and we're out there. You say, 'Hi. How's it going?' And they'll ask how things are going back home. Things like that. It's a little friendly face.'
Umpire Paul King looks on during the first half of the game between the Saints and Raiders at Caesars Superdome in 2024.
Richard Rodgers, who starred in football and basketball at St. John's, entered the NFL in 2014 and retired two years ago.
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King hasn't officiated high school basketball since 2015 — although he worked the Abby Kelley-Burncoat boys' volleyball match April 17 — but refereed several games when Rodgers played for the Pioneers.
So ...
'I pretty much stand with the offense during TV timeouts, and Rodgers, who was with Green Bay at the time, said to Aaron Rodgers, 'This guy used to officiate my basketball games,' ' King said.
'And Aaron looked (at me) and said, 'I hope he's better than he is in football.' Being a little quick-witted, I said, 'You know it's nice Richard to at least be on a team with your uncle.' '
While the positioning of his position — umpires now line up deep in the offensive backfield rather than in the area where linebackers are deployed on defense — has changed, King's uniform number has remained the same since he joined the NFL.
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'They give you a list (of choices), and being a math teacher, I went with 121,' King said. 'It's a square number. Eleven times 11. And I just decided to stay with it. If I walk into some buildings, I'll get a, 'Hey, 121 is here (from the players and coaches).' '
King taught math at Forest Grove and Worcester East middle schools for a combined 34 years before retiring from the Worcester Public Schools system in June 2023.
'I'm proud to say I'm from Worcester,' King said. 'I taught at Forest Grove, where my kids went, and then I went up to East Middle and had a rewarding experience there with those kids, and the people who brought me up there as well.'
'And I still miss it, which is why I came out here (Anna Maria) to have a little interaction. It's a little different with college students, but it's been very positive.'
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King and his wife, Kelly, have three children: Taylor, 30, who lives on the Cape; Bailey, 29, who resides in Melrose and is getting married in June; and Griffin, 21, a group events specialist for the Worcester Railers who is living at home.
Being an NFL official is demanding physically and mentally.
King watches what he eats and avoids bread and pasta. He works out five to six days a week, a regimen that includes strength training, yoga, stretching, and lots of cardio work and has been playing pickleball as of late.
When he's not teaching around Worcester or working at an official at a local high school game, Worcester's Paul King is on the football field with the NFL as an on-field official.
The NFL rule book is about two inches thick, and when King officially returns to work next month, he'll be greeted with a 200-question test, which will mainly focus on any new rules or changes.
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Intense studying, reviewing and testing takes place on a weekly basis during the season.
'It's a 365-day -a-year job,' King said.
One that he's closer to the end of his career than the start.
'I was kind of hoping to last the first year, of course, and be invited back,' King said. 'Then as it started going, I put in five, 10, and said, 'Well, I guess I can keep going.'
'And now I'm in a stage where it's year to year. Just try to stay healthy, stay up with the play.'
As for that first game and the encounter with Brady 16 years ago, well, King's daughters were in the stands that night, and when everyone met up after the game, Taylor had a question.
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'My daughter said, 'Dad, what did Tom Brady say to you?' ' King recounted. 'And I said, 'He was asking if the girls were here and how they were doing?'
'My oldest, who is very gullible, said, 'Really dad!' And my other daughter kind of slapped her and said, 'No.' '
Hmm, perhaps dad should have had a flag thrown at him for pranking interference.
—Contact Rich Garven at [e-mail]. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @RichGarvenTG.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester's Paul King keeps enjoying making the calls in NFL