Follow us here through the game for our live coverage of the calls and rules interpretations of today’s Super Bowl from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
Bill Vinovich is the referee for Super Bowl LIV. His all-star crew includes:
| Yrs | 2019 crew | College | Occupation | Prev. Playoff | Prev. SB | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | 52 | Bill Vinovich | 14 | San Diego | certified public accountant | 3 WC, 5 DIV, 4 CC | XLIX | |
| U | 20 | Barry Anderson | 13 | Allen | North Carolina State | builder/developer | 3 WC, 5 DIV | |
| DJ | 79 | Kent Payne | 16 | Rogers | Nebraska Wesleyan | teacher | 3 WC, 5 DIV, 8 CC | XLV, LI |
| LJ | 101 | Carl Johnson | 16 | Hussey | Nicholls State | former full-time official | 3 WC, 7 DIV, 2 CC | XLII |
| FJ | 72 | Michael Banks | 18 | Cheffers | Illinois State | carpenter foreman | 4 WC, 5 DIV | XLIII |
| SJ | 41 | Boris Cheek | 24 | Corrente | Morgan State | director of operations and management | 6 WC, 5 DIV, 2 CC | XLII, 50 |
| BJ | 12 | Greg Steed | 17 | Rogers | Howard | computer systems analyst | 4 WC, 2 DIV, 2 CC | XLIV |
| ALT | R | John Hussey | 18 | Idaho State | sales representative, retail logistics group | 5 WC, 4 DIV, 3 CC | XLV | |
| ALT | U | Bryan Neale | 6 | Smith | Indiana | sales consultant | 3 WC, 1 DIV, 2 CC | |
| ALT | LoS | Tom Stephan | 21 | Anderson | Pittsburg State | president and CEO | 5 WC, 1 DIV, 1 CC | |
| ALT | Deep | Jimmy Buchanan | 11 | Blakeman | South Carolina State | insurance agent | 3 WC | |
| ALT | BJ | Greg Wilson | 12 | Martin | USC | law enforcement | 5 WC, 2 DIV, 1 CC |
- Replay official: Mike Chase
- Replay assistant: Marv LeBlanc
Graphic: Chad Young for Football Zebras, Patrick McDermott/Getty Images, South Florida Stadium LLC
Good luck to the crew and a shout-out to Denver’ Kent Payne. Make ’em big.
Almost a screw-up on the coin toss. Vinovich made sure there wasn’t.
Looked like a missed helmet to helmet hit on Garoppolo on the imcomplete third down throw on the San Francisco drive prior to the go ahead KC Touchdown.
The call on George Kittle for OPI was in the words of Marv Levy – over-officious!
The missed delay of game penalty happened because the referees are set up for failure in that regard. They can’t watch the players AND the clock at the same time, so delay of games are inconsistently called: sometimes they’re called 1 second after, sometimes 2… sometimes they’re called with one second ON the clock. The NFL just needs to set up some kind of vibrator they wear when it runs down to zero so they can feel it.
I entirely disagree on that the call on Kittle was over officious. As a former DB, I can tell you that there is no way to cover a guy if he cam use his arm to stop you from closing. The harder you try to close in on him, the more you push him away from you creating the separation needs. It doesn’t look like major pass interference, just like holding a guy’s hand down low doesn’t look like much, but both are subtle pass interference plays that need to be called.