Ben Dreith
| Ben Dreith | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 1, 1925 |
| Nationality |
 United States
|
| Education |
University of Northern Colorado (Bachelor's degree, 1950) |
| Occupation |
AFL official (1960–1969) NFL official (1970–1990) |
Ben Dreith (born February 1, 1925) is a former American professional football on-field official who worked from 1960 to 1969 in the American Football League (AFL) and from 1970 to 1990 in the NFL. Prior to his teaching and officiating career, he was a three-sport athlete at the University of Northern Colorado.
Dreith developed a reputation of being a no-nonsense, tough-minded official on the field. During his thirty-year career, he officiated two Super Bowls, and received a playoff assignment for twenty-eight consecutive years.
Dreith is a 1950 graduate of the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley (then known as the Colorado State College of Education), where he played baseball, basketball, and football. He was a four-time all-conference selection in baseball and two-time in basketball, and later worked as a teacher for Denver Public Schools.
Dreith was hired by the new AFL in 1960 and moved to the NFL in 1970, following the AFL–NFL merger. He was the referee during Super Bowl VIII and Super Bowl XV and was assigned eight conference championship games. Dreith also was an alternate official in Super Bowl II; he wore uniform number 12, which is now worn by Greg Steed.
In 1983 in his typical no-nonsense fashion, in a late season of Steelers vs. Browns, Dreith ejected Jack Lambert from the game for a late hit on Brian Sipe in what turned out to be Sipe's final NFL game. Dreith is also known among football fans for his unique explanation of a personal foul penalty during a 1986 game between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets. After the Jets' Marty Lyons (misidentified as Mark Gastineau during Dreith's call) tackled Bills quarterback Jim Kelly to the ground and started to repeatedly punch him in the head, Dreith announced to the crowd: "There's a personal foul, on number 99 of the defense — after he tackled the quarterback, he's givin' him the business down there, that's a 15-yard penalty." Dreith's call also involved an improvised hand signal of a repeated punching action. Twenty-one years later, on November 24, 2007, during a game between University of Maryland and North Carolina State University, ACC referee Ron Cherry called a personal foul, saying, "He was giving him the business." Cherry did not use Dreith's hand signal. David Letterman stated he wanted the previous sentence to be a topic for Know Your Current Events.
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