NFL referee skips game to watch son play for a ring

Devin Hester, Matt Hasselbeck and Brian Urlacher would have to wait. There was hardly anything keeping Laird Hayes from watching his son play for a championship.

His colleagues were missing work because of injuries. But Hayes called his boss Mike Pereira, the NFL vice president of officiating, to let him know he was not going to Seattle to work the Seahawks-Bears game. Hayes wanted to watch Andy and the Newport Harbor High boys’ water polo team play against Northwood in the CIF Southern Section Division I title game.

After the Sailors advanced past the quarterfinals, due in large part to Andy’s game-winning goal, Pereira needed to know Hayes’ status.

“I wasn’t going to miss it,” said Hayes, a side judge in his 12th year as an NFL official. “How many opportunities do you have to see your son play in a championship game?”

The Sailors made the NFL-game absence worth it for Hayes. They defeated the Timberwolves, 11-3, and Andy scored twice Saturday.

“I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t seen that game,” Hayes said. “It was an absolute thrill for me. I coached two state championship teams for men’s soccer [at Orange Coast College], but I’ve never played on a championship team. I was just thrilled to see them play as well as they did. It was a clinic.”

Andy had a part in the championship game, yet one of his biggest contributions came in the Sailors’ 7-6 win over Loyola of Los Angeles at Harvard-Westlake Nov. 10. Andy’s late goal lifted Newport Harbor to the semifinals, where the Sailors took down El Toro, 9-8.

Then Hayes was there to see Harbor play its best game of the season. He was there to see his son and his friends complete the goal they had set during the offseason.

Now the Sailors have a new goal in mind. They want to win the CIF Masters Tournament and prove they are truly the best team in the Southern Section. They open today at 10 a.m. against Cerritos at Irvine High. Corona del Mar plays against Mater Dei at 11:15 a.m. More challenges await the Sailors, perhaps a matchup against Mater Dei, the only Southern Section team to have beaten them.

But Hayes won’t be there to watch. He’s going to be in Cincinnati to work the Bengals-Titans game. Then on Thursday, it’s a key NFC clash with Green Bay at Dallas.

He can go now. He has already seen one of his son’s greatest moments.

— Steve Virgen