Commissioner Paul Tagliabue informed NFL employees via a memo on Friday of Steeg's pending departure from the league.
Over the past two years, Steeg is believed to have explored job possibilities both inside and out of the NFL.
“During Jim's career, he has been recognised for his strong work ethic, dedication to the NFL, and for helping to increase the scope and impact of the Super Bowl to a level that not even the late commissioner Pete Rozelle could have imagined when he first planned the game in 1967,” Tagliabue said in the memo.
Tagliabue said that Steeg had informed him of his decision last week.
Steeg, 54, will remain with the NFL up to the Pro Bowl game. It is not yet known who might be among the candidates to replace Steeg, one of the league's most popular and engaging officials, but the commissioner emphasised that the timing of his departure will permit the NFL to “plan for a transition in March of 2005”.
Steeg joined the NFL office in 1979 after working four years in the Miami Dolphins front office.
