Some Hearsay
There is no official relief pilot position for crews on AA as far as I am concerned. Officially, for the 8hour plus flight, in this instance, there is one captain and two first officers. If one of the first officers is considered the relief, that is decided by the captain in the cockpit and most likely no earlier than one hour prior to flight. The term is just spin for any future justification to be lenient on the guy.
first time offense and he'll still be flying. Just hope never gets into a situation like this again.