Ready When Called: Side Judge Don Willard Will Referee Two NFL Games Sunday After the Ground Stop Scrambles the Crews

Sunday in the NFL usually belongs to the quarterbacks. This week, one of the most remarkable assignments on the schedule belongs to a man in stripes. Side judge Don Willard is set to serve as the referee for two games on the same day: first the Dolphins and Colts in Indianapolis at 1 p.m. Eastern, then the Steelers and Bengals on Sunday Night Football in Cincinnati at 8:20 p.m., according to Yahoo Sports.

It is the most striking piece of a weekend shuffle forced by Friday's nationwide ground stop, which lasted more than four hours and canceled more than 7,000 flights, NBC News reported. The league does not play on Saturdays, but the New York Post noted that the Friday stoppage still reached into the NFL's plans for Sunday.

The NFL reassigned three officials for Week 10, all of them backups stepping into the referee's role, Yahoo Sports reported. Umpire Duane Heydt will referee the Panthers and Saints in New Orleans. Umpire Barry Anderson will referee the Jaguars and Titans in Tennessee. And Willard takes the double shift, Indianapolis in the afternoon and Cincinnati at night.

The Daily Mail described the moves as emergency changes, made so the league would not be left shorthanded while the airline industry was still trying to recover from Friday's shutdown.

There is one more wrinkle in New Orleans. For the Panthers-Saints game, replay duties will be handled by the league's replay center in New York rather than by an official at the stadium, according to Yahoo Sports.

What did not change is just as important for the fans who bought tickets and planned their weekends around these games. The NFL is keeping its Sunday slate intact, with no schedule changes despite the officiating moves, Yahoo Sports reported. NBC News, looking across every sport hit by the ground stop, put it simply: college football was thrown into chaos, while the NFL came through safe.

Why was there no panic at league headquarters? Because the plan existed long before the FAA's communication problem did. The NFL said each of its 17 officiating crews already has a backup referee identified, and that person trains throughout the year to work the referee position should the need arise.

That is who Heydt, Anderson and Willard are. They are not emergency fill-ins pulled off the street. They are the men the league had quietly prepared for exactly this kind of weekend, and on Sunday they get the white hat.

Willard's day is the one people are talking about. Yahoo Sports noted that it is unclear whether an official has ever refereed two games on the same day in league history. The math of the schedule gives him a window: the early game in Indianapolis kicks off at 1 p.m., and the prime-time game in Cincinnati does not start until 8:20 p.m.. That still means two full games of decisions, communication with the replay booth and the clock, and one long day in between.

Nobody buys a side judge's jersey. Nobody tailgates for the umpire. Officials are the third team on the field every Sunday, and the only time most fans learn their names is when something goes wrong.

So it is worth saying plainly when something goes right. A nationwide shutdown of the skies could have become a weekend story about empty stripes and patched-together crews. Instead, it became a story about preparation. Somebody at the league decided years ago that every crew needed a second referee who was ready, and those men did the unglamorous work of training for a job they might never be asked to do.

There is an old line in Scripture about being ready in season and out of season. That is the backup's whole calling, whether he is a third-string quarterback, a practice-squad cornerback or a veteran official in stripes. You prepare as if the call is coming, because one day it does.

Young players should take note, too. The guy who stays sharp when he is not starting is the guy a team trusts when the plan falls apart. Willard, Heydt and Anderson are about to show what that looks like at the highest level of the sport.

Keep an eye on New Orleans, where the replay arrangement is different from every other stadium on the slate. Watch Indianapolis for Willard's first game in the referee's role, and then watch Cincinnati, where he will be in charge again under the prime-time lights.

If all goes well, nobody will notice the officials at all. For a referee, that is the highest compliment the game can pay.