Report: Walt Anderson stepping down as NFL senior V.P. of officiating

The NFL is in search of a new senior vice president of officiating.

Ben Austro of Football Zebras reports that Walt Anderson is stepping down from the job effective May 1. Anderson is expected to remain in the officiating department overseeing replay operations, though his new role is not finalized.

Anderson spent 24 seasons as an NFL official, including 17 as a referee, before moving upstairs at the end of the 2019 season. He was hired to be the league's senior vice president of officiating development under Al Riveron and Perry Fewell.

Riveron retired after the 2020 season, while Fewell remains as the senior vice president of officiating administration.

Anderson, 71, was not expected to hold the job long term, but now the NFL will hire its sixth primary officiating head since 2010. Art McNally oversaw the officiating department from 1968-90 before Jerry Seeman held the job for 10 years and Mike Pereira for nine years.

No one has headed the officiating department for more than four years since.

Anderson's departure clears the way for the NFL to hire his son, Big 12 referee Derek Anderson, as an on-field official, a move that Football Zebras reports was disallowed by the league's human resources office last offseason.