Jeff Triplette
| Jeff Triplette | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |
 United States
|
| Occupation | NFL official (1996–present) |
Jeff Triplette is an American football official in the National Football League (NFL) since the 1996 season. He wears uniform number 42.
Triplette is a retired Army Reserve colonel. He was awarded the Bronze Star for actions in the Persian Gulf War while serving in the North Carolina Army National Guard.
In January 2007, Triplette was named president and chief operating officer of FNC, Inc., the provider of collateral management technology to the nation's largest mortgage lenders. Before joining FNC, he was vice president for risk management at Duke Energy, a large energy company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In March 2013, Triplette was named president and CEO of ArbiterSports.com, a website designed to assist in assigning officials to sports teams.
Triplette joined the NFL as a field judge in 1996, then switched to back judge in 1998 after the NFL swapped position titles that season, and became a referee in 1999 after four-time Super Bowl referee Jerry Markbreit announced his retirement. He was the alternate referee of Super Bowl XLI, which was held on February 4, 2007 in Miami.
On December 19, 1999, Triplette accidentally hit the Cleveland Browns' Orlando Brown in the eye with a penalty flag weighed with ball bearings. Video shows that Triplette immediately apologized to Brown, who was then tended to by the medical staff. Brown attempted to rejoin the team on the field a few minutes later, but Triplette prevented him from entering for the next play per NFL rules which stipulate that if a player incurs an injury timeout he must sit out the next play. Brown shoved Triplette to the ground and was ejected. Initially the NFL suspended Brown indefinitely, but lifted the suspension when it was learned that the flag had temporarily blinded him. As a result of the incident, the practice of officials using flags weighted with ball bearings was discontinued in favor of other material. In addition, officials are now only instructed to throw a flag at the spot of the foul if they need to mark it as a possible spot for penalty enforcement; otherwise, they only need to throw it up in the air.
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