Adam Thielen rips 'fanboy' refs, calls for full-time officials

Vikings veteran receiver Adam Thielen was visibly irate during Sunday's loss to the Ravens after being called for an illegal blindside block. Several days later, those emotions haven't dissipated, with Thielen telling KFAN's Power Trip Morning Show that he thinks refs don't "really understand the rule."

He took it a step further later in the interview, calling for the league to hire full-time referees while labeling some as 'fanboys.'

"I think we need to have full time referees. I think it's ridiculous that we have — and no offense to these guys, I mean, they obviously love their job, and they put a lot of time into it, I know they do," said Thielen on Friday. "But it's like, we have these guys that are kind of fanboys a little bit. Like, they love the fact that they get to go out there and they get to shake hands with Patrick Mahomes. They get to hang out with these professional athletes. Then they go to their real job on Monday through Friday, and tell everybody how cool their side job is."

"We have these guys that are kind of fanboys a little bit."

Vikings WR Adam Thielen told the @PowerTripKFAN this morning that he thinks the NFL should have full time referees.@iHeartRadio #iHeartRadio pic.twitter.com/4PXUgZaoHw
— KFAN1003 (@KFAN1003) November 14, 2025

There have long been calls for the league to hire their officials as full-time employees. However, despite having the ability to, the league and its officials have so far held back on making the transition to full time. While a lot of the responsibility to do so is on the league's shoulders, there also has to be a desire from the officials to do so. At this point, neither side has budged.

Under the CBA with the NFLRA, the league has the option to hire some full-time officials. However, according to the crew list of all 17 officiating crews laid out by FootballZebras.com, none of the 17 referees, the leader of each crew, is a full-time league employee. All of them have outside full-time jobs ranging from aerospace software engineer (Adrian Hill) to nonprofit CEOs (John Hussey and Brad Allen) to attorneys (Ron Torbert and Clete Blakeman).

As Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio laid out in 2023, it's a two-sided issue. On one side, the league has to pony up the money to be able to convince the officials it's a good idea to leave the safety net of their current full-time employment for a job that constantly grades and judges you on your performance. That pressure and stress, along with the possibility that a bad season can see you lose employment, has long kept officials from taking up the league's offers of full-time employment.

If the league were to require that officials go full time, there could be a risk some of the current crop of officials might just up and quit for the safety of their current line of full time work. When posed with that possibility, one anonymous league executive told Florio at the time, "These guys are not good enough for us to worry about losing them."

"I think there should be full-time referees," continued Thielen. "The NFL is (worth) billions and billions of dollars. There's so much money in the game. There's so much betting on the game that these games matter so much. Not obviously to the people that are gambling, but what about the people that put so much time and effort to try to go and perform well and try to win games? And all the time the coaches put in. They deserve to have full-time referees. That's my take on it and I think it's very easy to do and I don't know why it hasn't been done."

It's been long overdue that the NFL joins the rest of the sporting world and hire its officials full time. Thielen is the latest to call for the change, and he likely won't be the last.

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