Probably "just standing in the corner," he says, although "this means I'll get another nice suit from Fox. ... They manage to make me look halfway decent on camera, with the blanket they put on my face."

The idea will be for Pereira, who retired from overseeing NFL officiating before joining Fox, to be in the booth on Fox's NFL playoff action as well as its Jan. 2 AT&T Cotton Bowl for his usual on-air cameos during instant replay reviews. This season, he has monitored NFL games from Fox's Los Angeles studios and has gone 34-for-34 in predicting on-air what refs will decide. "I hold my breath every time. To be honest, I watch other networks' games, and there have been a couple I got wrong. I've been lucky."

Fox Sports President Eric Shanks says Fox initially considered using Pereira for analysis online or on-air but via audio. Ultimately, he says, Fox decided to show him on-air because "people need to know he's a real person."

And one with former colleagues who've given him plenty of feedback. "They were pretty cautious at first, wondering if I'd be controversial or do what I said I'd do: educate fans. ... Officials can be resentful, and it's just human nature if people talk about them and don't know the rules." What officials like, he says, is that he sometimes has taken the heat off of them by explaining they're just following rules, "even if it's a bad rule. It deflects criticism."

Pereira, who hasn't worked a game on-field since 1997, talks to Fox producers during games about which replay angles they should air on contested plays. He sees the NFL's crackdown on illegal hits having an effect.

"At first I didn't think it would change much, but it has," he says. "Generally now, everybody — the fans, the writers — is in agreement that something has to be done to prevent concussions."