Jerry Markbreit

I'm currently attending the Southwest Fire and Rescue Conference in Galveston, TX. The guest speaker for the opening ceremony was NFL referee Jerry Markbreit. He is without a doubt the best speaker I have ever had the opportunity to listen to. I'm not the typical football fan, but very little of his speech was about football. He has a way of linking his extraordinary profession to events we all experience in life. He is both funny and motivating. More importantly, he is a great story teller. Needless to say, I was impressed and awe struck... after meeting him. Ironically I sat one row behind him for an hour (before his speech) and had no idea who he was. Lots of great stories, like how he is Jewish, but attended Catholic Mass before every game. Of course, there is a funny story why.

Below is a brief overview of his career:
Jerry Markbreit (born March 23, 1935 in Chicago, Illinois) is a former American football referee in the National Football League (NFL) for 23 seasons and became one of the most recognizable referees in the game [1]. Markbreit officiated football games for 43 seasons. From 1965 to 1975, Markbreit officiated college football games in the Big Ten Conference. He then joined the NFL in 1976 as a Line Judge before being promoted to the head referee position in just his second year. His uniform number in the league was 9, which is now worn by Mark Perlman. Until he retired from the NFL after the 1998 season, Markbreit officiated in two wild card (1991 and 1994), ten divisional (1979, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1995, 1997, and 1998), eight conference championship (1980, 1983, 1984, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, and 1996) playoff games, one Pro Bowl (1978), and four Super Bowls: Super Bowl XVII, Super Bowl XXI, Super Bowl XXVI, and Super Bowl XXIX and was an alternate in Super Bowl XIX, Super Bowl XXII, and Super Bowl XXVIII [2][3]. To date, he is the only NFL head referee to officiate four Super Bowl games.
Books by Markbreit
The Armchair Referee—500 Questions and Answers about Football (ISBN 0-385-08089-1)
Born to Referee: My Life on the Gridiron (ISBN 0-688-07938-5)
Last Call: Memoirs of an NFL Referee (ISBN 1-58382-030-2)

It took me 3-hours and 30-minutes to get home due to a high speed chase by HPD that resulted in a roll-over. I don't cope well with traffic. Traffic has a way of stressing me out faster than almost anything else. I did a fair job at dealing with the stress, but my workout was cut back due to time constraints. As soon as I got home I ran one mile. I'll do my weight training tomorrow. The run felt good and it was a continuous run.

Run:
1.08
10:50
10:02 pace