An NFL official will work two games on the same day Sunday after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights nationwide for several hours Friday, disrupting travel plans for professional and college teams across the country.
Don Willard will officiate the Miami Dolphins’ game against the Indianapolis Colts at 1pm ET before traveling 112 miles east to work the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Sunday Night Football matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The NFL benefited from its Sunday schedule, with teams typically traveling the day before their games. But Friday’s flight stoppage forced adjustments across the league’s officiating crews and elsewhere in American sports.
The NBA also made changes to its officiating assignments as travel disruptions continued into Saturday.
Brian Forte was added to the officiating crew for the Chicago-Minnesota game, replacing Jason Goldenberg. Jenna Schroeder, meanwhile, replaced Forte for the Dallas-Cleveland game. The Brooklyn-Memphis game brought Michael Smith into the three-person crew late in the afternoon after another referee could not get there in time.
Brent Barnaky and CJ Washington were added to the Denver-New Orleans game on Saturday night after officiating a game in New Orleans on Friday night. Two other referees had been assigned earlier Saturday.
Major sporting events slowly returned to normal Saturday after the nationwide ground stop, although teams across the country continued to grapple with its effects.
Most college football teams playing Saturday travel the day before kickoff, and a number of games were delayed by hours to give visiting programs more time to arrive and prepare. No 2 Utah’s game at No 22 Arizona was pushed back three hours, as was Arizona State’s game at Central Florida. Other teams, like Auburn, opted for charter buses. One way or another, most teams found a solution.
There was, however, one major exception: the No 19 Mississippi game at Oklahoma was moved to Sunday, with kickoff scheduled for 1pm ET.
JuJu Watkins and her third-ranked Southern California teammates had just boarded their flight to face top-ranked South Carolina when the ground stop was issued. The Trojans women’s basketball team stayed in Los Angeles for the night after being deplaned, and their departure for Greenville was pushed to Saturday afternoon.
Fairleigh Dickinson women’s basketball coach Stephanie Gaitley found out late Friday night that her team’s flight to Ohio State had been canceled. There was discussion about leaving immediately by bus and making a stop halfway, but Gaitley preferred to let her team get a better night’s sleep before setting out on a 10-hour bus ride on Saturday morning.
In women’s soccer, the Utah Royals were already in the Washington DC area ahead of their National Women’s Soccer League semi-final against the Washington Spirit on Saturday. The Kansas City Current were supposed to depart Friday for their semi-final against Gotham FC on Sunday in New York.
The Current told ESPN they were “collaborating with key stakeholders, including the NWSL and our charter partner, to identify next steps in order to arrive safely ahead of our match against Gotham FC on Sunday”.
There were 14 scheduled NHL games on Saturday, and the majority of teams made it to their destinations before the flight stoppage began. The San Jose Sharks, who were left waiting to see whether they would be able to travel, arrived late Friday in Utah.
In the NBA, most teams were, at worst, mildly affected by Friday’s events. Cleveland were the outlier.
The Cavaliers started their Saturday much earlier than usual, leaving Miami at 8.54am on a plane taking them to Cleveland, where they were set to play the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night.
The Cavs couldn’t get out of Miami on Friday night as planned after a game against the Heat that capped a three-game road trip, then scrambled to rebook some hotel rooms. NBA teams typically don’t fly on the morning of a game, but exceptions have been made for unusual situations.
Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell said he would have preferred Saturday’s game to be rescheduled, but noted the team would “make adjustments, figure it out and go from there.”
“Back-to-back, three-hour flight, it was already a tough one,” Mitchell said. “But hey, they say we’ve got to play, we’ve got to play.”
Rescheduling the game against the Mavericks wasn’t an ideal option. Cleveland have a busy arena with a minor league hockey team, college games and other events scheduled; Saturday’s game falls in a stretch where the arena is playing host to events on 11 consecutive days.
“It’s part of it,” Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said. “You just adapt.”
The Cavaliers listed Mitchell, James Harden, Peyton Watson and Jarrett Allen as questionable on Saturday night’s injury report shortly after their flight landed in Cleveland. All four started Friday’s game in Miami.
