Art McNally Dies at Age 97; 1st On-Field Official Inducted into Pro Football HOF

Pro Football Hall of Fame official Art McNally died at the age of 97.

In 2022, McNally became the first on-field official to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Per ESPN, McNally's son Tom said his father died of natural causes at a hospital near his longtime home in Newtown, Pennsylvania.

"Art McNally was an extraordinary man, the epitome of integrity and class," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement Monday. "Throughout his distinguished officiating career, he earned the eternal respect of the entire football community. Fittingly, he was the first game official enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. But more importantly, he was a Hall of Fame person in absolutely every way."

McNally had spent over 50 years in the NFL working as an on-field official, the head of officiating for the NFL and an adviser to the league. He had taken over the department in 1968 following a nine-year on-field career and remained involved until his retirement in 2015. He was "credited with modernizing the practice of how games are officiated," per ESPN.

"Art McNally was a quiet, honest man of integrity," Hall of Fame president Jim Porter said in a statement. "To see Art's decades of service recognized with his enshrinement as part of the Class of 2022 was a special moment for the Hall. His legacy as a strong leader who helped usher in the advanced training of officials and the technology necessary to keep up with a faster and more complicated game will be preserved forever in Canton."

Under McNally's leadership, the NFL revamped how officials were positioned to work a game and what calls they made to establish consistency across the sport. He created an evaluation system for officials, using all-22 game film to teach as well as review performances. He instituted weekly training videos and rules quizzes to improve officiating.

"Art came in and understood that this was something that was needed and laid that foundation and that foundation is still what we stand on today in the officiating world," Dean Blandino, one of McNally's successors as the NFL's head of officiating, said prior to McNally's induction. "Every league in every sport at every level has an evaluation system and that all goes back to Art."

McNally is also credited with helping to implement the NFL's first use of instant replay in the 1980s. He worked his first Super Bowl in 1986 as a replay official. He played a major part in advising his successors when the use of instant replay returned in 1999 following an eight-year hiatus.

"You just want to get it right," former NFL referee Ed Hochuli said this summer. "Art was the definition of that. If you look up the definition of integrity in the dictionary and there's a picture of Art."