Mike Carey set to work as Super Bowl’s first black referee

The first black referee picked to work a Super Bowl didn’t need a platform. Instead, Mike Carey stood off to the side and talked about his historic assignment.

“Sports is like politics. It’s the window to progress,” he said Friday.

Carey met reporters after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell delivered his state of the game speech. The crew chief routinely attends the annual address, but rarely speaks to the media.

Given the significance this time, Carey spoke for about a half-hour. He saw his appointment for Sunday’s game as “another step in the erosion of stereotypes we all know should be eroded.”

There have been several dozen black officials in the Super Bowl — two other blacks are on the crew for the game between New England and the New York Giants. Carey stood by as the alternate referee for the 2002 game in New Orleans when the Patriots beat the Rams.

He praised the black officials who have gone before him, notably Johnnie Grier, the first black referee in the NFL and now an assistant supervisor of officials, and Al Jury, one of the league’s top officials for two decades.