An NFL official is about to pull a doubleheader for the first time – but hockey fans have seen this movie before.

Side judge Don Willard will work as the referee in two NFL games on Sunday, a scheduling scramble forced by Friday’s nationwide FAA ground stop. Willard will run the Miami Dolphins at Indianapolis Colts game at 1:00 PM ET, then travel roughly 110 miles to Cincinnati to referee the Pittsburgh Steelers at Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday Night Football, kicking off at 8:20 PM ET.

The NFL announced the reshuffle on Saturday, moving officials to games within driving distance of their hometowns after the ground stop – the longest nationwide halt in 25 years, with more than 2,000 flights cancelled – stranded crews across the country.

“Due to the ongoing nationwide impact to air travel this weekend, the NFL has adjusted its officiating assignments for Week 10 games, reassigning officials to games within driving distance of their hometowns,” the league said in a statement. “The changes will necessitate that three back up referees – umpires Barry Anderson and Duane Heydt and side judge Don Willard – will work as referees.

Anderson will referee Jacksonville at Tennessee and Heydt will referee Carolina at New Orleans, both 1:00 PM ET starts. Willard, though, drew the marathon: two games, two cities, and a primetime AFC North matchup to finish the day.

According to the NFL, each of its 17 officiating crews carries a designated backup referee who trains in the role all season in case of emergency. Willard is one of them. He’s in his ninth NFL season, all of it at the deep-wing positions, and normally works as the side judge on Scott Novak’s crew — a crew that was scheduled to be off this week. Instead of a bye, he gets two games in a role he’s trained for but never worked in a full regular-season game. Football Zebras notes all three of Sunday’s emergency referees have previously worked as referees in preseason games.

As for precedent, there may not be one – in the NFL, at least. Football Zebras, which tracks NFL officiating assignments, puts it plainly: “There have been occasions where officials have worked back-to-back days. We have no record of any official (referee or otherwise) working two games on the same day.”

The NHL’s Officiating Doubleheader

Hockey, though, has done this before – and it took the same kind of emergency.

On November 3, 1990, linesman Wayne Bonney worked a Saturday matinee between the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers at The Spectrum. During the second intermission, he was told the linesman scheduled for that night’s Buffalo Sabres at Boston Bruins game was ill and couldn’t make it – and that Bonney was the nearest replacement.

When the Blackhawks’ 3-1 win ended, Bonney got a police escort to the airport, flew to Boston, grabbed his gear, took a cab to Boston Garden, and arrived less than an hour before puck drop.

“I have never been that tired after a day of hockey in my life,” Bonney said. “I’ll always remember the thrill of that interesting day – and the three offside calls I missed in Boston.”

Bonney, who went on to work 1,658 NHL regular-season games, remains the NHL’s only documented two-games-in-one-day official. Notably, he was a linesman, not a referee.

We could find no record of an NHL referee ever working two games in one day.

The parallels are hard to miss. NHL officials fly commercial, just like their NFL counterparts. Teams charter, officials don’t – which is why this weekend’s ground stop had the NHL watching its own 14-game Saturday slate for stranded crews. When travel breaks down, leagues don’t reach for the rulebook. They reach for whoever’s closest, qualified, and willing.

On Sunday, that’s Don Willard… twice.