So You Think You Know Football?: The Armchair Ref’s Guide to the Official Rules

Ben Austro is so deft and smart about every football rule that he could be working at the right hand of Dean Blandino in the NFL officiating department. But you’re lucky he isn’t, because now he has time to enrich your football experience with this book. — Peter King, The MMQB editor-in-chief; NBC NFL analyst

A readable, informative, and entertaining casebook of NFL rules that appeals to the casual and expert fan. Austro explains nuanced examples with an authority typically unseen from NFL media. — Kevin Seifert, ESPN.com

It’s been fascinating to follow Ben Austro’s progression from interested fan to qualified commentator to bona fide expert on NFL rules and officiating. So You Think You Know Football? is must-reading for NFL fans who want to know how the game really works. The book takes you from the start of the game to the finish and highlights interesting rule quirks with real-life examples taken from recent NFL games. — John Murphy, Buffalo Bills play-by-play announcer

Ben Austro has done an outstanding job of research and analysis of the rules and nuances of the game of football as played and officiated in the National Football League. For every fan that has ever said ‘I could’ve made that call’ to themselves or their football buddies—here’s your chance. Austro leaves no stone unturned as he fully explains the when, what, and how behind various rules and interpretations which come into play each and every week during an NFL game. I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I have. — Larry Upson, former NFL officiating supervisor and on-field official; former vice president of officiating for UFL

Ben Austro has been an armchair official since he wrote to the league office in 1988 and received a copy of the official NFL rulebook. From there, he founded Football Zebras, a website dedicated to rules interpretations and the 33^rd team in the NFL: the officiating crews. When he is not writing about football, he is a regulatory specialist in food labeling. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and three children.