The concept is a logical idea with the potential to spread across TV sports. Mike Pereira, who retired from overseeing NFL officiating after the 2009 season, will be in Fox's NFL studios in Los Angeles ready to go on-air on any particular game to explain rules to viewers and even point out blown calls. But, he says, "I won't throw any individual official under the bus" — such as by citing names or hometowns.

Though viewers couldn't listen in, Pereira has long explained NFL rules to TV announcers working games. As he monitored games from the NFL's command center in New York, "I always made sure the announcers had my cellphone number, and I seemed to be on speed dial. I was always prepared to give the 30-second answer, and sometimes it's hard to achieve clarity in 30 seconds."

But in that NFL job, he didn't waste time telling announcers when on-field calls were wrong: "They knew not to ask me about judgment calls. I told them to feel free to call me, but not to ask if I agreed with a pass interference or holding call. That would have been a no-win for me."

As such conversations go on-air this season, he says, "We'll have more time to address things, and announcers won't have to try to remember everything I say."

Pereira, while still working for the league last year, was on an NFL Network midweek show that reviewed and explained game officiating. He says game officials understood he needed to be candid on-air: "Officials constantly told me they enjoyed the show. ... When I showed they were wrong, they already knew the pressures of the job, that they lived in glass houses."

Pereira, who will also appear on Fox Sports Radio, write online columns and take online questions during games, is obviously sympathetic to officials. He says MLB umps should get expanded use of instant replay — "it's almost crazy not to give them the additional tool" — and an extra ump in broadcast booths at games who could use replays to overturn calls.

Pereira, who began officiating in 1982 in college games, suggests he sees himself as a sort of on-air educator: "My job was to teach officiating to about 120 guys (in the NFL) for 12 years. Now my job is to teach officiating to millions."

And maybe to come up with some funny catchphrases while he's at it.