NFL official Carl Madsen, who was officiating the Kansas City Chiefs-Tennessee Titans game on Sunday, October 24, died while on his way home following the game at Nissan Stadium in Tennessee, a spokesperson at the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department told TMZ Sports.
According to the outlet, the department received multiple calls “about a motorist blocking a lane on the interstate and when they arrived on scene, they found Madsen unconscious in the driver’s seat of the car.”
Police broke a car window to remove Madsen and performed chest compressions, but Madsen was pronounced dead at St. Thomas Midtown Hospital, the New York Post reported. His cause of death has not been reported.
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NFL on Madsen’s Passing
Terrible news: A longtime member of the NFL officiating family, replay official Carl Madsen, passed away tragically Sunday while en route home from the Kansas City-Tennessee game. He was 71.
Madsen, 71, was an on-field official for the NFL from 1997 to 2008 before becoming a replay official in 2009 — “one of the longest tenured replay officials in NFL history,” according to the New York Post. He was also a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.
NFL senior vice president Walt Anderson provided a statement to media following Madsen’s death:
“Carl Madsen was an NFL officiating fixture for more than two decades, first as a highly respected on-field official before transitioning to a replay role beginning in 2009,” Anderson said. “A terrific friend and colleague, Carl’s love of football and dedication to officiating was ever-present, as he generously shared his time to mentor young officials at clinics across the country. A veteran of the Air Force, Carl had a tremendous spirit and will be greatly missed.”
NFL Referees Association Executive Director Scott Green also released a statement to media, saying, “Carl will be missed by those who worked with him on the field and in replay. He had a nickname among his fellow officials of ‘Big Country’ which was not only related to his size but to his big personality as a warm and generous man.”
State of the Chiefs
Through seven games, the Chiefs have a 3-4 record. They are third place in the AFC West, behind the Las Vegas Raiders (5-2) and Los Angeles Chargers (4-2), and are in front of the Denver Broncos (3-4). Kansas City has 10 games remaining on their schedule, with five of them being their divisional opponents.
Head coach Andy Reid spoke of the state of the team following Kansas City’s 27-3 loss on the road to the Tennessee Titans in Week 7.
“The obvious is that we didn’t play well enough yesterday. It’s my responsibility that we get that done. The obvious things are the things that we need to take care of right now,” Reid said during his opening statement on October 25. “Those are the penalties, the turnovers—those have got to be answered and taken care of. That will help us with the third down situation and then put ourselves in position where we can also create some turnovers.
“I thought we did a good job with the interception yesterday. Defensively, we did some great things in the run game against a really good runner. But there are spots here where we’ve got to take care of business, whether it’s with the pass game offensively or defensively. We’ve got to make sure we better ourselves there.”
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Chiefs-Titans NFL Official Dies While Traveling After Week 7 Game