Hall of Fame NFL official Art McNally dies at age 97

FILE - A video of NFL official Art McNally is played during an induction ceremony at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022. Art McNally, the first on-field official inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, has died. He was 97. His son, Tom McNally, said Monday, Jan. 2, 2023, that his father died of natural causes at a hospital in Newtown, Pennsylvania, near his longtime home.

“Art McNally was an extraordinary man, the epitome of integrity and class," Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement Monday. “Throughout his distinguished officiating career, he earned the eternal respect of the entire football community. Fittingly, he was the first game official enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. But more importantly, he was a Hall of Fame person in absolutely every way.

“Art McNally was a quiet, honest man of integrity,” Hall of Fame President Jim Porter said in a statement."To see Art’s decades of service recognized with his enshrinement as part of the Class of 2022 was a special moment for the Hall. His legacy as a strong leader who helped usher in the advanced training of officials and the technology necessary to keep up with a faster and more complicated game will be preserved forever in Canton.

“He was natural at it,” O’Hara said this past summer. “From being a teacher and being kind of like a rule follower his life because he followed the rules. ... The biggest thing was he enjoyed making it fair. That’s all he wanted to do was to be fair and to get it right. I guess that’s the things he enjoyed about officiating.”

He used all-22 game film to teach the officials and grade their performance, using the film to teach as well as evaluate officials. He utilized weekly training videos and rules quizzes to help improve the officiating across the league. McNally also helped implement the NFL’s first use of instant replay in the 1980s and got his first chance to work a Super Bowl as a replay official following the 1986 season.

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