 Carey officiated the same two teams when they played each other during the final week of the 2007 NFL season.At the time of his retirement, Carey was one of the two senior referees in the NFL, along with Walt Coleman.Carey was promoted in 1995 when the league added the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars and thus needed an extra officiating crew to handle up to 15 games per weekend instead of 14, which had been the case between 1976 and 1994.