By Dan McDonald
Special to the American Press

Read Terry McAulay’s Twitter feed (@tjmcaulay) and you’ll discover that he is a high-level foodie, a devoted animal rescuer and connoisseur of ‘70s music.

Rarely on that Twitter feed are there mentions of football officiating, where McAulay reached the pinnacle of his chosen field, or his recent ventures as part of the on-air announcing crew for the most popular show on television. There’s another feed under his name that is wall-to-wall officiating analysis and all things football, and that’s by design.

“I really get frustrated sometimes,” McAulay said of Twitter accounts. “I follow people for their expertise, and suddenly I get a lot of personal stuff in there. That’s not why I follow them. For my followers, I strictly use that (feed) for analysis, because that’s the reason they follow me. The other one is just for fun.”

The distinct separation provides an insight into McAulay, an indication that behind the maximum 240-character posts is an individual who is precise, highly motivated, has great communication skills and is a taskmaster with high expectations for those in his work environments.

“He’s demanding and he’s tough,” said Greg Gautreaux, a fellow Louisiana product and also a long-time NFL game official. “He expects a lot out of his crew, but he also gets the most out of officials he works with. He helped me really grow as an official.”

There’s a cliché that in sports officiating — especially on the NFL level — you have to start out perfect and then get better. Over a 20-year career in the NFL and in the years of college and high school officiating that came prior, McAulay came closer than anyone. For years, many of his peers singled him out as the best of the white-hats (which the head official of a crew wears).

That’s the reason the Hammond native and LSU alumnus is being honored with the 2021 Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award, and will be enshrined into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame during its Saturday ceremonies in Natchitoches.

McAulay retired from on-field officiating in June of 2018 and is now in an even more challenging role as the on-air rules expert and officiating evaluator for NBC Sports’ Sunday Night Football” NFL game.

That jump to the booth, at the still-young age of 58, came as a surprise to many, especially those in NFL inner circles who were accustomed to the high level of performance on the field. He had already earned selection as referee for eight conference championships and three Super Bowls — only one referee in NFL history has worked more — and the consensus was that more top assignments were on the way.

“It was difficult,” McAulay said. “But it was such an amazing opportunity. I had done about everything I could do on the field and there was nothing else I needed to prove. I knew if I turned it down, that opportunity wasn’t going to be available again.

“I miss officiating, but there’s a lot of wear and tear that goes with it and dealing with the NFL bureaucracy that I don’t miss.”

Don’t assume that McAulay wouldn’t have been happy heading up an NFL crew for many more years.

“There’s not enough stories out there about the good people in the game,” he said. “It’s unfortunate and it’s part of our society in general that the negative is focused on.

“But the players, almost to a man, were terrific to work with. They get emotional in emotional situations, but I thought they were wonderful to work with.”

McAulay was raised by his mother in Hammond, the youngest of four children in what was not an easy upbringing. Officiating everything in sight — prep football, basketball, flag and pee-wee football — helped bring in income while he was still in high school at Valley Forge Academy in Amite. That continued during his days at both Southeastern Louisiana and LSU as one of three McAulay kids who put themselves through college.

His love of officiating continued when he moved north to Maryland for a 26-year career as a computer programmer and software engineer with the National Security Agency. The expected veil of secrecy there — he once told a writer that he “monitored foreign intelligence and kept them from doing that to us” — became a benefit to his increasingly-successful avocation. It’s not like you can take NSA work home with you.”

McAulay had worked his way into college football officiating in NCAA Division III leagues, before he took the unheard-of direct leap into Division I referee duties in the ACC in 1994.

In his first ACC game, Maryland-Florida State, the stars aligned.

“There was a scout there from the NFL that was watching somebody else on that crew,” McAulay said. “After that game, I got a phone call that told me I needed to send in an application (to the NFL) because they were impressed. Certainly it was a goal to get to the NFL, but that was probably the first indication that it could come true.”

McAulay refereed the 1998 Tennessee-Nebraska BCS title game in the Orange Bowl before he was tabbed by the NFL for the 1998 season. After three years of working on game crews, the NFL promoted him to a referee position in 2001, and only one year later he was assigned to his first conference championship game.

Four years later he was the crew chief for Super Bowl XXXIX matching New England and Philadelphia in 2005, becoming the first to draw a Super Bowl assignment with fewer than five seasons as a referee.

“The Super Bowl’s the pinnacle of every official’s career,” he said. “Not a lot of people have done it … It’s a lot of hard work, a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get there, but it’s quite an experience.”

Those spots aren’t just handed out. Game officials are critiqued on every game, every call, in excruciating detail for an entire season, and only those who numerically grade the highest are given postseason assignments. McAulay was always among the highest rated.

He also worked Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa Bay in 2009 (when Pittsburgh scored with 35 seconds left to beat Arizona 27-23) and Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014 between Denver and Seattle. He was a fixture in postseason games before moving to the broadcast booth, where his knowledge and expertise — and his reputation for being honest and straightforward — is on display.

Being critical of officials for the rare mistake is part of the job now … not that McAulay has ever hesitated when he thinks he’s right. In 2015 when the NFL Referees Association publicly criticized McAulay’s crew for not ejecting more players during a volatile New York Giants-Carolina Panthers game, he promptly resigned from the officials union.

“I have spoken out about things,” he said, “which is another reason I love what I’m doing now. I get to say the hard things that need to be said. A lot of people don’t like it … but I’ve always felt that it’s better to know what someone’s thinking, what they truly believe, instead of being behind their backs … I don’t mince words.”

In a way, his TV gig is even more of a challenge.

“During a broadcast, I have to be right every time, and I don’t have the luxury of time to figure out what the right thing is, “McAulay said. “I get that. When you’re calling games, you have six or seven other people to help you through complex situations. Here, it’s all on me. Speaking succinctly about complex rules in a very short time window is difficult.

“But I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I absolutely love what I’m doing.”