NFL fires judge Hugo Cruz, effective immediately

On Thursday, the NFL made the very unusual decision to dismiss Judge Hugo Cruz for performance reasons.

This is the first time the NFL has fired an official in the Super Bowl season for performance reasons.

Cruz, who was working for the last time in week 6 and is no longer an NFL employee, joined the NFL in 2015. He was making a big mistake this season when he missed a false start Los Angeles Chargers' obvious, left striker Russell Okung on a scoring play in Week 6 against the Cleveland Browns. He did not work during week 7.

Otherwise, the details of the league's decision – including Cruz's other alleged errors – are unknown.

An NFL spokesman declined to comment.

"The NFL has a troubling history of instinctive reactions with an eye on public relations and has clearly not learned from the mistakes of the past," said Scott Green, executive director of the NFL Referees Association. "The NFLRA will protect the collectively bargained rights of all officials and challenge this rash decision through the grievance procedure."

In accordance with the collective agreement with the NFL, the NFLRA has 90 days to file the grievance.

According to sources contacted by ESPN, there is no indication that Cruz made an error out of the field or that his dismissal was disciplinary.

The NFL ranks the officials on their performances in every game of each match. The league has sometimes suspended or rebadigned officials for errors in the administration of the game, but it evaluates their career each year by placing each on one of three levels.

Level I is for top performers, level II is intermediate and level III is the lowest performer in a given year. Historically, two consecutive seasons in the third level make an official vulnerable to revocation.

This system is designed to prevent instantaneous evaluations based on a single error or a series of closely synchronized errors.

The NFL's quick decision on Cruz will send shockwaves into the ranks of officials. Officials who could once be badured that their season would be badessed from a broader perspective will now be wondering if they could receive a phone call ending their career after a bad match.