Mike Pereira is popularly known for being a retired American Football official who served as the assistant head of officiating of the National Football League (NFL). He also previously worked for Fox Sports.
Age, Early Life, and Education Background
Mike Pereira hails from Stockton, California, and was born under the Aries zodiac sign on 13 April 1950, which makes him 72 years old as of 2022. He is of Portuguese decent, the son of Lydia Pereira and her husband, Amaro Louise ‘AL’ Pereira, and was brought up together with his elder sister, Linda Pereira. His father was a Pacific Coast Athletic Association (now Big West Conference or BWC) linesman, and he acknowledges that it was him who taught him the basics of American Football.
Pereira attended a local high school and matriculated to Santa Clara University. He played baseball for the school’s team from 1970 to 1972, before he graduated with a BA in Finance.
In 1980, Mike launched an athletic shoes and golf equipment store in partnership with his parents, who had already divorced at that time.
Hobbies and Interests
Pereira is a big fan of golfing, and travels across the U.S. playing tournaments with friends – he formerly traveled from Fort Myers to Miami playing golf.
He is a philanthropist and in 2017, he created the foundation BATTLEFIELDS TO BATTLEFIELDS, which offers scholarships to US Army veterans. Its mission is to provide them with the opportunity of integrating back into the community through sports officiating.
Career
Officiating
Before he began his career in NFL, Pereira spent over 14 years officiating American Football college games – he worked in the American Big West Conference (BWC) from 1982 to 1991, and served in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) from 1991 to 1996. During this period, he officiated many post-season Bowl Games such as the Cotton Bowl, Aloha Bowl, Holiday Bowl and many more. He then advanced to the NFL, and worked as a WAC officials’ supervisor and a sideline judge for two years. Subsequently, he was promoted to the position of Supervisor of Officiating, and in 2002, he replaced Jerry Seeman as the Director of Officiating. Mike was eventually promoted to the Vice President (VP) position in 2004, which he held until he left the NFL in 2009.
Mike became the Interim Officiating Co-ordinator of the Pac-10 Conference in February 2011, and was succeeded by Tony Corrente in June of that year. He officiated for the minor league Alliance of American Football for two months in 2019. Mike is currently the President of Officiating of the US Football League (U.S.F.L).
TV Career
When he was the NFL’s V.P. of Officiating. Pereira made regular appearances in the show “NFL Total Access,” which was hosted by Rich Eisen He made a remarkable breakthrough in his career when he was invited to serve as a rules analyst for Fox Sports. He covered both NFL and college games, and provided commentary on the column FoxSports.com. He was also invited as a guest on the San Francisco radio station KNBR from time to time. Mike was named the most indispensable talented rules analyst by Sports II in 2012. Michael Hiestand, who works for USA Today, also applauded Fox’s move to hire Mike, adding that he had proven to have an influential and candid voice.
Here we go! pic.twitter.com/EvrC2Zt1vY
— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) April 23, 2022
Pereira caught the attention of several media outlets when he openly criticized Jon Gruden’s commentary, calling him a ‘blowhard… who spouts off when he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Jon, who is a sportscaster for the live broadcast “Monday Night Football,” had erroneously interpreted the rules in the Atlanta Falcons Vs. New Orleans Saints match. It’s reported that it’s Mike’s skills and success that influenced the channels NBC, CBS, ESPN, and TNT to adopt rule analysts in all their American Football broadcasts.
Mike is highly active on Twitter with nearly 300,000 followers. He is also active on Instagram and is followed by almost 3,000 fans.
Personal Life
Mike met his future wife, Gail Jones Pereria, through his sister in the late-‘80s – Linda and Gail attended UC Davis college and had become good friends. Gail would accompany his sister to his baseball games when they were in college. Mike and Gail began dating after meeting again in Portugal, where the latter had gone vacationing with Linda. After dating her for almost eight years, Mike popped the question in 1996 over dinner in Sacramento, just a day after he landed a job as an NFL official. It was reported that both Mike and Linda were previously married, but divorced their partners when their courtship began; the duo walked the aisle shortly afterwards. Mike is very secretive about his personal life, and hasn’t revealed whether he has children or not. He now resides in Sacramento, California, with his wife.
Battle with Cancer
Mike has survived cancer twice: he was diagnosed with testicular and colon cancers in 1975 and 2007 respectively, but went for treatment and is now cancer-free. He’s outspoken and does not hide his emotions when speaking about the disease, and previously spoke about the reactions of the NFL officials when they learned that he had cancer. They sent him many flowers wishing him a timely recovery, which was very uplifting – he urged them to always take care of themselves, and to go for regular checkups to detect the disease before it began spreading. NFL is known to promote cancer awareness, and participates in the campaign Blow the Whistle on Cancer, which works in partnership with V Foundation. Mike and the National Basketball Association referee, Bob Delaney, are the co-chairs of the campaign.
Height, Weight, and Physical Appearance
Mike has graying hair and a set of black eyes. He stands at a short stature of 5ft 1in (1.55m) and weighs approximately 115lbs (52kgs). Mike appears very fit for his age; he plays American Football at home, and works out at the gym from time to time.
Net Worth
Mark earned a huge sum from his NFL career, so has also accumulated a good net worth from his successful business endeavors. His net worth is approximately $4 million as of 2022. He owns a luxury home situated in Greenwich, Connecticut.
