Umpire Larry Smith will miss the rest of the 2026 season after he was hurt in the first quarter of the Houston Texans’ 34-31 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. Multiple officiating sources told Football Zebras that Smith tore a quadriceps muscle. The league’s officiating department declined to comment through a spokesman.
What happened at Wembley
Rain before kickoff left the Wembley grass slick. Smith slipped between plays when a ball was relayed to him slightly over his head and fell on his back. He got back to his feet, but as soon as he put weight on his right leg he crumpled to the turf again. Veteran line judge Carl Johnson took off his cap and knelt beside him while trainers from both teams treated him, and Smith was taken off the field on a cart. He tipped his cap to the crowd as he left.
Referee Shawn Hochuli’s crew finished the game with six officials instead of seven. The league has six-official mechanics for that situation, and the referee and the other officials split the umpire’s duties for the rest of the afternoon.
Who is Larry Smith?
Smith is in his second NFL season. His full-time job is as a school principal in Kansas City, Kansas. Before he reached the league, he worked seven seasons as a referee and one as a center judge in the Big Ten, and he previously officiated in the Mid-American Conference. He also worked on five spring league rosters from 2019 to 2024 and was the referee for the 2023 USFL Championship.
It was the second week in a row that Smith ended up in a viral clip. A week earlier in Los Angeles, his shoe came off while he was backpedaling to his pre-snap spot, and Hochuli quickly called a timeout on himself to try to keep the cameras off Smith.
What comes next
Hochuli will work with a substitute umpire for the rest of the season. Tab Slaughter is a veteran swing official at the position, Ian Malepeai is the only umpire among the league’s new bench swing officials, and crews on a bye week can also lend an umpire. The league has not announced who will take Smith’s spot.
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