National Football League

Pereira named top sports media person

Published Dec. 28, 2010 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Viewers and readers of FOX Sports and FOXSports.com have come to rely on resident referee expert Mike Pereira to provide them with entertaining, informative and reliable explanations of the league’s often baffling and controversial rulings during games.

The folks at Sports Illustrated and its website SI.com also have recognized Pereira’s groundbreaking impact on sports television, naming him their Sports Media Person of the Year for 2010.

“Having the opportunity to work for FOX and to be honored by Sports Illustrated in the same year will make 2010 a year that I will always remember,” Pereira said.

SI.com says FOX made the hire of the year by adding Pereira, a former NFL referee and the league’s former vice president of officiating, to its multi-platform sports team.

“Revolutions in sports television sometimes come with little fanfare,” SI.com sports media columnist Richard Deitsch writes. “Fox initially thought Pereira, the former vice president of officiating for the NFL, would make his biggest impact on the web. But the opening week of the NFL season featured one of the more controversial plays of the year -- Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson’s apparent game-winning catch against the Bears, and Pereira’s insight on the play proved invaluable."

SI.com notes that Pereira has correctly predicted 49 of 50 replay challenges this season – he disagreed with the judgment of the refs on a DeSean Jackson reception that was ruled a catch and fumble (Pereira predicted the refs would overturn the play to an incomplete pass).

In addition to his duties with the NFL on FOX broadcast team, Pereira writes weekly columns for FOXSports.com dissecting officiating rules, rulings and trends, and he also appears on video on FOXSports.com. Pereira also is a regular guest on FOX Sports Radio’s national lineup.

Pereira will be part of FOX Sports’ coverage of the Cotton Bowl and the NFL playoffs and will be in the booth with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman during FOX’s coverage of Super Bowl XLV.

Says SI.com: “His pioneering role will assuredly prompt another network to add an officiating analyst, whether in football or another sport.”