Alumnus realizes longtime dream, officiates first Super Bowl

Allen Baynes will never forget a phone call he received on Jan. 23.

The 1999 Auburn University graduate had been waiting for that call for years, and when it came, it brought with it a feeling he had never experienced. It was no ordinary call for a chat, it was the call to tell him he had been chosen to officiate his first career Super Bowl.

Baynes, a Tallassee, Alabama, native, was selected as a side judge for Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs on Feb. 11. A 16-year-veteran National Football League (NFL) official, Baynes had worked the AFC Championship Game and NFC Championship Game twice apiece, but had never been selected for the “big game.”

That all changed in January, and he remembers the moment vividly.

“I was getting ready to go to the cell phone store for a new case and cover for my phone, and the phone rang,” said Baynes, an NFL official since 2008. “It was my position supervisor, Doug Rosenbaum, and he said, ‘I’ve got some good and bad news for you.’ I said, ‘Well, give me the bad news first.’ He said, ‘keep your travel bag out because you’re still traveling, and the good news is that you’ve had a great year and you’re being assigned to work the Super Bowl.’

“It was so special to call my wife and tell her, and there were a lot of tears and a lot of excitement. Calling my dad was something really special, too, and it is one of those moments in your life you’ll never forget.”

Amazingly, Baynes was the third person in his family to officiate a Super Bowl.

His brothers, Rusty and Mark, are both Auburn University at Montgomery graduates and U.S. Marine Reservists who have worked as officials. Their father, Ronnie Baynes, not only rose to the level of NFL official, but worked Super Bowl XXIX in 1995 and Super Bowl XXXIII in 1999 before taking a leadership role in the league as head of officials. Rusty also rose to the rank of NFL official and has two Super Bowls on his résumé, Super Bowl 50 in 2016 and Super Bowl LV in 2021.

“I feel like I can sit at the big kids’ table now,” Baynes said of joining his father and brother as Super Bowl officials. “The funny thing is that, with Super Bowl XXXIII between the Broncos and the Falcons, you had a Shanahan coaching, a McCaffrey playing and a Baynes officiating, and we had the same thing this year. Christian McCaffrey said it was like we’ve come full circle, and we thought that was neat.”

In 2023, Baynes joined his father (Class of 2019) and brother, Rusty (Class of 2022), as a member of the Alabama Sports Officials Hall of Fame, further cementing the family’s legacy in the state.

Laying the foundation

The youngest of six children of Marie and Ronnie, Baynes grew up watching his father officiate football games and coach baseball. Baynes began working as a football official in 1995 while a student at Auburn, refereeing area high school games and intramural games on the Plains. After graduating in 1999, Baynes spent two years as assistant baseball coach under his father at Central Alabama Community College before going into real estate, a field in which he still works when he’s not officiating.

Baynes kept working high school games as well to get experience, leading to his professional break in 2000 with the Chicago-based Arena Football League II. After a two-year stint there, Baynes began working for Conference USA in 2001 and also officiated games for the Arena Football League and NFL Europe, working five seasons in places like Scotland, Germany, Amsterdam and Barcelona, Spain, from 2003-07.

“I was trying to figure out if I wanted to do the baseball route or the football route,” said Baynes, who coached baseball with his father from 2000-02. “I had to choose one path or the other. I decided to stick with the football route and see where that took me.”

He kept going strong with the Conference USA and Arena Football League gigs until 2008, when he was “called up” to the NFL. Baynes worked his first NFL playoff game in 2010 and has officiated nearly a dozen postseason games during his career.

One of his most treasured memories, though, came from a University of Alabama-Birmingham spring game in which he was part of a crew that included his father and his brothers, Rusty and Mark.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Baynes, who began exclusively working as a side judge in 2002. “It was one of the best moments we’ve had as a group.”

He remembers looking to his father for guidance early and often as a mentor, and Baynes still relies on his sage advice as a professional official.

“It’s an interesting dynamic for a job because you’ve just known all about it from Day One from having a father who did it,” Baynes said. “He’s always told us that the most important game is preseason Week 1 because that means you’ve done a good enough job to be invited back. I’ve always carried that with me.”

Living the job

Through the years, Baynes also has acquired ample football administrative experience, working as a trainer and grader for the Southern Football Conference, serving as director of officiating for the Professional Indoor Football League and instructing and speaking at various camps, academies and clinics.

“It’s neat to get to work with the officials who are just getting started and to be able to give them some pointers that people have given me along the way,” Baynes said. “Hopefully, I can help them reach the level they’re shooting for.”

He and his fellow NFL officials stay current on the ever-changing rules through regular education sessions and seminars, and Baynes knows every play he oversees is examined by league administrators.

“We get evaluated every game, and every play gets graded,” Baynes said. “My family usually knows what kind of mood I’m in based on the game report that came in from the league. That’s how our performance is evaluated, and that determines who gets to work the postseason games.”

The travel associated with the job can be tiresome, as can the weekly film review sessions, but Baynes still enjoys it immensely. Even if coaches can be unruly and pepper him and his peers with high-decibel feedback, Baynes knows it’s just part of the deal.

“Communication is the key,” Baynes said of interacting with coaches. “I don’t mind if a coach gets upset, and I’ll let him vent and we’ll talk. There are times when they have a right to get a little frustrated, and you go over and talk to them, but just don’t let them cross the line and get personal. I’ve been fortunate to have some good relationships with coaches, and I think my background as a coach helps with that.”

Instant replay and other technology, like wireless headsets that let officials communicate with one another quickly and efficiently, have enhanced officials’ capabilities, and Baynes appreciates the improvements since accuracy is of the utmost importance.

“Our biggest concern when we’re out there is to get it right,” he said. “The technology is available, and I want whatever tool I can use to get it right for the coaches and the players. There’s a balance with it because there needs to be a flow to the game and nobody wants the game interrupted every two plays, but if we can work in technology to help us be efficient and get it right, that’s what we want.”

Path to the Plains

Baynes’ father and three of his sisters graduated from Auburn, and while his mother attended “that other” state school, he knew the Plains was the place for him after growing up attending football games at Jordan-Hare Stadium. He majored in Spanish while working summer baseball programs with his father, whom Baynes considers his biggest influence.

Baynes gravitated to the real estate world, which still serves as the backdrop for his professional career. Now based in Birmingham, Alabama, he currently serves as chief financial officer and senior real estate specialist for LifeCare Solutions, owned and operated by his wife, Christy.

Never a person to sit idly on the sidelines, Baynes also serves as senior real estate specialist for LAH Real Estate. He and Christy enjoy spending time with their children — daughter, Mary Carleton, who will attend Auburn in the fall, and son, Mason, a first-year high school student.

Family and football are central themes for anyone with the Baynes surname.

“My parents have 11 grandkids, and three of them have just started to officiate, so there’s a third generation that is working high school games,” Baynes said.

The Baynes family is a close-knit group that knows the sacred nature of also being part of the Auburn Family.

“The Auburn Family is truly that…a family,” Baynes said. “I grew up going to Auburn games when my sisters were there. I remember seeing the officials’ van pulling into the stadiums and thinking to myself that I would like to do that one day.

“The Auburn Family has even expanded into my officiating family, as my referee John Hussey’s daughter, Emily, just graduated from Auburn, and we love to talk about how great it is to be an alumni of Auburn University. It is also neat to see Auburn football alumni play on Sundays, and many will come up to me and say, ‘War Eagle’ since several know that I graduated from Auburn.”

War Eagle, indeed.