The Super Bowl LVII officiating crew: pic.twitter.com/y63WiFsEEl
Buy Chiefs Tickets— NFL Officiating (@NFLOfficiating) January 24, 2023
15-year NFL referee Carl Cheffers and an all-star crew are set to officiate the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVII matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles.
This is the third time that the Chiefs have drawn Cheffers this season. He and his crew officiated their Week 15 game against the Houston Texans. They also officiated the Week 5 game against the Las Vegas Raiders. That Week 5 game featured a controversial roughing the passer penalty against DT Chris Jones. Cheffers and his crew were nearly booed out of Arrowhead Stadium during the game and looked quite shaken by the fan response. That penalty and another on 49ers DE Nick Bosa sparked a league-wide debate about roughing the passer.
In those two previous regular season games, Cheffers and his crew called 30 total penalties, 15 total penalties against Kansas City and 15 total penalties on their opponents. The Chiefs had a combined 174 penalty yards called against them in those two games.
Kansas City has a long history with Cheffers and his crew, though. Travis Kelce was fined for criticism of Cheffers after the 18-16 AFC divisional round loss against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2016. Those comments were quite inflammatory:
“It’s ignorance, the ref, No. 51 (Carl Cheffers), should never be allowed to wear a Zebra jersey again,” Kelce said. “He shouldn’t even be able to work at *expletive* foot locker.”
This also isn’t the only Chiefs Super Bowl that Cheffers has officiated. He was the head referee for Super Bowl LV against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — a game where the K.C. was penalized 11 times for 120 yards. The Bucs were penalized just four times for 39 yards.
It’s understandable why FOX rules analyst Dean Blandino was asked about any potential concerns for bias during Super Bowl media week.
Beyond the bad history, Cheffers and his crew had the second-highest total count in the league (244) and the highest accepted penalty count (214). The 30 dismissed penalties were right around the league average for the NFL. His 1869 penalty yards led the NFL by 89 yards more than the next closest crew (through 17 games).
Cheffers’ crew also had the highest rate of defensive pass interference penalties in the league this season (17). Kansas City, of course, led the NFL in defensive pass interference penalties called against (15). On the flip side, Cheffers and his crew called the fifth-most offensive holding penalties (41) and the second-most false start penalties (40). Philadelphia had the most penalized offensive line in the league this season. Eight of those penalties came on an ineligible man downfield penalty (lots of RPOs), which Cheffers’ crew called just four times this season.
Perhaps the only saving grace for this game is that Cheffers is not officiating the game with his normal crew. That might lead to some different tendencies in this matchup, but it’s likely to be a game with a high number of penalties called. I’d be shocked if there were fewer than 10 total penalties called on both teams.
