Tra Blake Is No Longer an NFL Referee

Actual accountability, perhaps?

For the first time in a long time, we might actually have a case of accountability for an NFL official.

In a story that I managed to somehow miss from last week, the folks from Football Zebras are reporting that Tra Blake has been demoted from referee down to umpire, meaning that he will no longer be leading an NFL officiating crew.

Blake, if you’ll recall, is the official who was staring right at Sam Darnold on a play in the Minnesota Vikings’ loss to the Los Angeles Rams that saw Rams’ defender Byron Young grab Darnold by his face mask and drag him down for a sack in the end zone. While the Vikings likely would have had a difficult time getting the points they needed to potentially win or tie that game, the safety effectively ended any chance the Vikings may have had. That play made the score 30-20 with under two minutes remaining and left the Vikings with a free kick situation that the Rams recovered to run out the clock.

I’m not saying that Blake’s demotion was directly tied to the missed face mask call. I’m not not saying that either, though. It’s also worth noting that in his two eligible seasons as a head referee. . .he was promoted to the job ahead of the 2022 season. . .he didn’t manage to garner a postseason assignment.

In Blake’s spot, the league promoted Alex Moore, who was previously an umpire and who missed last year’s postseason while breaking up a fight during the game he worked in Arizona in Week 18.