Terry McAulay is a former American football official who worked in the National Football League for the 1998 through 2017 seasons. He was the referee for seven conference championship games and three Super Bowls. He was the Coordinator of Football Officials for college football's Big East and subsequently the American Athletic Conference from 2008 to 2017.
McAulay began his NFL officiating career in 1998 as a side judge on Walt Coleman's crew and worked the 2000 NFC Championship game, which was his last game at that position before he became a referee for the 2001 NFL season. He wore uniform number 77. Coincidentally, McAulay wore the same number and originally worked at the same position that was vacated by Mike Pereira, who served as the NFL's Vice President of Officiating from 2001 until February 2010. He was the first referee to work a Super Bowl with fewer than five seasons experience as a referee when he was the crew chief for Super Bowl XXXIX, which came at the end of his fourth season as a referee and is one of only six NFL Referees to have worked three or more Super Bowls. McAulay refereed the 2017 Monday Night Football season opener between the Los Angeles Chargers and Denver Broncos, which was the Chargers' first game since relocating to Los Angeles. When the Chargers called a first quarter timeout, McAulay mistakenly called them "San Diego".
"Bottlegate" incident
McAulay was the referee in the Jacksonville Jaguars' 15-10 victory over the Cleveland Browns at Cleveland Browns Stadium on December 16, 2001 which ended with a display of unruly fan behavior. The Browns wide receiverQuincy Morgan caught a pass for a first down on 4th and 1 as they were driving toward the end zone looking for the winning score. The Browns then ran another play, which would normally prevent the completed pass from being reviewed. Despite this, citing a "malfunction of the replay system", McAulay reviewed the catch and determined that Morgan never had control of the ball. The pass was called incomplete and the Jaguars were awarded the ball. However, fans in the "Dawg Pound" began throwing plastic beer bottles and other objects at players and officials. McAulay then declared the game over and sent the teams to the locker rooms. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue called the game supervisor to override McAulay's decision to end the game prematurely, sending the players back onto the field after a thirty-minute delay, where the Jaguars ran out the last seconds under a hail of debris.
