The life of a National Football League referee doesn’t just consist of flying to great cities, blowing a whistle and throwing flags once a week.

Ken Baker, Eastern’s director of campus recreation, can say first-hand the job requires much more than just those three things. After being an NFL referee for 11 years, he has learned the ropes of being a professional official, maintaining a job at a university, being a husband and a father, and he’ll be the first to say that those ropes are extremely hard to climb.

Baker started his career as a referee officiating high school football games. He then began officiating small college games. He later made what he called a “big jump” from Division III college football to the Big Ten Conference.

“I was the youngest guy in the Big Ten, and four years later when I left, I was still the youngest guy,” Baker said.

While Baker was officiating a game between Purdue and Notre Dame, an NFL scout was there looking at another referee. But by the end of the game, the scout was impressed with Baker.

The league later encouraged him to apply for an NFL position.

Baker, however, wasn’t ready to leave college ball. He wanted to officiate a bowl game before making the step to the next level.

He got his wish in 1990 when he officiated the National Championship game at the Sugar Bowl. The very next year, he left the collegiate ranks and entered the world of professional football.

Working for the NFL required a few more restrictions on Baker’s personal life. As an NFL referee, he is not able to be around any type of gambling. While he is working for the NFL, he cannot visit Las Vegas, Atlantic City or any river boat. While some might see this as a major inconvenience, Baker said he doesn’t miss what he never enjoyed in the first place.

A typical week for Baker is very different than most university employees. While his schedule is busy, he said Fridays belong to his wife, Sandy.

“I take my wife out to dinner on Friday nights, or we do whatever she wants to do,” Baker said. “That’s her night.”

Then at approximately 4 a.m. Saturday morning, Baker gets up, showers, packs his belongings and is on the road to the airport by 5 a.m. Normally Baker drives to Champaign and flies from there to Chicago where he catches another plane to wherever his destination is for Sunday’s game.

Baker has to be on location by 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The crew of seven officials Baker works with on a weekly basis meets at a hotel to distribute game tickets and discuss arrangements for next week’s game.

Then the rigorous work begins. The afternoon begins with the officials looking at game tape from the week before. Baker’s supervisors in New York analyze each play and call from the game and grade the crew accordingly.

On Saturday, Baker and the other officials look at the different plays from several camera angles and see what grades they received from their supervisors.

“You can’t hide from it,” Baker said. “We see the game from a number of different camera angles. It’s kind of like getting a test back. You learn from your mistakes, and if you don’t, you won’t be around too much longer.”

Baker said only one-half percent of all officials actually make it into the NFL. There are only three NFL officials that reside in Illinois and only 119 across the country.

“It’s tough to get in and stay in,” he said.

After watching the film from last week’s game, the officials then view a training tape put together by NFL supervisors. The tape consists of good and bad calls from the previous week’s games across the league. Afterwards, they watch the last of the three tapes which is a replay tape. This tape features tight plays from last week’s game. The officials look at them for a second time and make sure they were all handled properly.

Then it’s time for the written test. It consists of questions about the general rules and regulations of the NFL.

After the test is taken and all the tapes are reviewed, then the officials treat themselves to a nice dinner to unwind. Then it’s off to bed to get some rest for the next day’s game.

Sunday morning, the officials get up for breakfast and head to the stadium. They must be there three hours before the scheduled game time. Upon arrival, Baker and the other officials check the field, rub the footballs down, check the clocks, synchronize their watches to the T.V. clocks, check the headphones and converse with coaches.

The officials have their own locker room, which Baker compared to “Grand Central Station.” The room is generally filled with TV reporters, time keepers, coaches and many others.

Baker and the other officials have to be on the field 35 minutes before game time, while the players take the field five minutes before game time and the coin toss is at two minutes before kickoff.

“Everything is scripted out by TV, and a time schedule is posted in our locker rooms,” Baker said. “Then the game starts and the stadium starts to rock.”

Then the chaos begins.

“Once the game starts, the entire place gets crazy,” he said. “Sometimes I wonder about the men who take their shirts off in the freezing cold and paint their bellies different colors. My ears are still ringing from the Green Bay, Vikings game in Minnesota two weeks ago.”

Contrary to popular belief, Baker said he believes he and the other officials have a great relationship with the NFL players.

“I get called ‘sir’ more than anything else,” Baker said. “That’s something people are always surprised at. It takes two people to argue, and I’m not going to be one of them. I have respect for (the players), and they have respect for me.”

Following the game, Baker is required to fill out a game report with all the calls he made during the game. Afterwards, he rushes to an airport and tries to get home to his wife as soon as possible.

“I scramble to try to get to my flight home,” he said. “It’s a madhouse trying to get out of the stadium.”

On average, he arrives home at 1 a.m., but he doesn’t go straight to bed. He tapes his games while he is away, and if there was a play he was unsure about, he may watch the game again before he goes to bed.

Most of the time, he said, he doesn’t get to bed much before 2 or 3 a.m. And at 8 a.m., he’s back in his office at the Student Recreation Center and the whole routine starts over again.

When Baker’s crew works its one Monday night game per season, the schedule is even more grueling.

“People think this job is very glamourous,” Baker said. “But the travel is very grueling. It’s always airports, hotels and locker rooms. After 11 years, you start wondering how much longer you want to do this.”

Baker said notoriety definitely comes with the job, but he believes there is sometimes too much notoriety attached to professional sports.

“It’s still just a game,” he said.

Baker makes no attempt to hide his priorities from the NFL. Whether they want to hear it or not, Baker makes it clear his priority order is this: family, Eastern and then the NFL.

“The NFL wants 100 percent of me, but they will just never get it,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of people wreck their families, and I’m not willing to pay that price.”

Baker said the most exciting game he ever officiated was the NFC Championship game between the Cowboys and the 49ers in 1994.

“That was the Super Bowl for all practical purposes,” he said. “The 49ers went on to win the Super Bowl that year.”

Baker hasn’t officiated a Super Bowl yet, but his career has allowed him to rub shoulders with celebrities like Michael Jordan and former president Jimmy Carter. He has, however, officiated in all the playoff games and the Hall of Fame game.

The job has also allowed him to continue to visit his favorite places to officiate like Hawaii, San Francisco, Chicago and Denver.

As for exciting experiences on the field, Baker said, “You don’t want to get too exciting on the field, or you won’t be around too long.”