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Millions of football fans will tune in to the Super Bowl Feb. 7, when Fort Myers residents will see a familiar face on the field.
The umpire for the game will be Jeffrey Rice, a Fort Myers attorney and partner of Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice & Purtz. It's likely you've caught glimpses of Rice on television in the past: He's been officiating NFL games for 20 years. Plus, his face is on his law firm's billboards all around Fort Myers.
As a National Football League official, Rice is forbidden to speak publicly about his role until after the season has ended. But this will be his third time officiating the big game. He was the umpire in Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002 and Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004.
In a previous off-season interview with the Business Observer, Rice discussed how he balances his busy law practice with the demands of officiating games. That includes working on the plane while traveling to games and squeezing in courtroom appearances in the middle of the week.
Between travel, games and studying the rules, Rice estimates he spends 30 hours a week working for the NFL during the season. “I spend 26 weekends a year gone,” he says. “By the middle of December, I'm crawling.”
A big part of the job is studying the rules because you have to rule quickly and be right, just like in the courtroom. Over time, wrong calls get you fired.
Rice is an umpire, so his position near the linebackers makes him particularly vulnerable to injury. Rice once got a concussion in a pileup at a New Orleans Saints game and ended up with a bandage on his head. His law colleagues all wore bandages on their heads in sympathy the following week.
Of course, working NFL games has its perks, too. Rice knows many of the players by their first names and he'll add another Super Bowl ring to his collection.
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