Byron Boston is a former

American football official In gridiron football, an official is a person who has responsibility in enforcing the rules and maintaining the order of the game. During professional and most college football games, seven officials operate on the field. Since 2015, Division I ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL), from 1995 until 2020. He was a line judge and wore the uniform number 18. During his NFL officiating career, Boston was assigned to

Super Bowl XXXIV Super Bowl XXXIV was an American football game played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 30, 2000, to determine the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1999 season. The National Football Conference (NFC) champion ...

Super Bowl XLVII Super Bowl XLVII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Baltimore Ravens and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champio ...

, and

Super Bowl LII Super Bowl LII was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2017 season. As a rematch of Super Bowl XXXIX from 13 years earlier, the game was between the National Football Conferen ...

. and ten conference championship games.

Early life

Boston played football for

Austin College Austin College is a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Sherman, Texas.Sherman, Texas Sherman is a city in and the county seat of Grayson County, Texas, United States. The city's population in 2020 was 43,645. It is one of the two principal cities in the Sherman–Denison metropolitan area, Sherman–Denison metropolitan statist ...

, and graduated with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

Career

He began his officiating career in 1977 in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, where he worked

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

from 1977 to 1984, which included two State Championship games. After working high school games, Boston moved up to Junior College football in 1985 and later joined the

Southland Conference The Southland Conference (SLC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States (specifically Texas and Louisiana). It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it participates in ...

in 1987. In 1990, Boston began working games in the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference also included schools from Oklaho ...

. Over his college football officiating career, Boston was selected for Division 1AA playoff games and ended his final game at the collegiate level with the 1994

Holiday Bowl The Holiday Bowl is an annual college football bowl game held in San Diego, California. Operating since 1978, its current conference tie-ins are with the Pac-12 Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The bowl is held at Snapdragon S ...

. In 1995, Boston was selected to the NFL officiating staff. On February 15, 2007, the

named Byron Boston as coordinator of football officials. In 2020, after nearly 25 years of officiating, Boston retired from being an NFL official and his jersey is on display in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Boston and his wife Carolyn reside in

Humble, Texas Humble ( ) is a city located in the Greater Houston, Houston metropolitan area. Humble became an Boomtown, oil boomtown in the early 20th century when oil was first discovered there in 1904. By 1905, the Humble oilfield was the largest producing ...

, and have three children, Alicia, Byron Jr., and

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

. David was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

in the NFL. Byron Boston works as a

tax consultant A tax advisor or tax consultant is a person with advanced training and knowledge of tax law. The services of a tax advisor are usually retained in order to minimize taxation while remaining compliant with the law in complicated financial situations ...

outside of his NFL officiating duties.

References

External links

Byron Boston - NFL
Football Officials Camps, LLC. (Accessed August 21, 2006). {{DEFAULTSORT:Boston, Byron Living people African-American referees and umpires NFL officials Austin College alumni Sportspeople from Harris County, Texas Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American sportsmen 21st-century African-American sportsmen American football people from Texas