Meet the Producers
The producers met in various ways and came together for this project around their mutual passion for football officiating. In his high-visibility roles with the NFL and Fox Sports, Blandino has been the connecting point for the other members of the team. Blandino met Hansen when the two collaborated on Hansen’s short film, “Her Turf,” about women in football officiating. When Hansen approached Blandino about creating a longer-form film or series about football officiating, the two went about building their team. Blandino met Zeigler several years ago through various discussions around the need to educate people across football officiating on expanding diversity and inclusion, as well as educate fans on rules and officiating. And Blandino worked with both Longson and Dickson in the NFL. Each of them brings important and complimentary skills to the team, and their ability to collaborate with one another is resulting in a powerful series and project that goes beyond the screen and behind the stripes.
Dean Blandino
Producer
Blandino is a rules and officiating analyst for Fox Sports and the national replay coordinator for college football. As the former NFL VP of Officiating, he oversaw the noteworthy full-time hire of line judge Sarah Thomas, the league’s first female official. He lives in Los Angeles.
Shantel Hansen
Director & Producer
Hansen is a marketing consultant and a documentary film director/producer, best known for her award winning documentary short, Her Turf, exploring the lives of female football officials on and off the field. She lives in Colorado with her kiddo.
Cyd Zeigler
Producer
Zeigler is an award-winning sports journalist and commentator. He founded Outsports in 1999, a sports news website focusing on LGBTQ issues and personalities in sports. He is also a high school and college referee and line judge. He lives in Los Angeles with his husband.
Bart Longson
Executive Producer
Longson was a line-of-scrimmage official in the NFL from 2015 to 2021. Prior to that he worked in the Pac 12, Big XII and Mountain West Conference. He is also founder & CEO of Clicklease, a financing firm for small business. He lives in Salt Lake City.
Ryan Dickson
Executive Producer
Dixon is currently a field judge in the NFL. With Karl Richins, he created Stars and Stripes Academy, one of the nation’s leading educational opportunities for up-and-coming officials. He lives in Salt Lake City.