Andy Reid says he and the Chiefs know Super Bowl LV referee Carl Cheffers well
This is Week 21 of the NFL season, but it just so happens there is only one game on the schedule: Super Bowl LV.
When you reach this point in the season, the Super Bowl teams have plenty of tape of their opponent. Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Wednesday his team also is familiar with the officiating crew.
Carl Cheffers will be the referee for the Chiefs-Buccaneers game, and this will be his second Super Bowl. He also worked Super Bowl LI (Patriots-Falcons).
The officiating crew includes down judge Sarah Thomas, who will make Super Bowl history as the first woman to officiate in the game.
“Sarah Thomas has made history again as the first female Super Bowl official,” Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, told NFL.com. “Her elite performance and commitment to excellence has earned her the right to officiate the Super Bowl. Congratulations to Sarah on this well-deserved honor.”
Thomas began working NFL games in 2015 with the Chiefs-Texans game. She has worked as a line judge and head linesman, per Pro Football Reference.
The rest of the officiating crew, per the NFL: umpire Fred Bryan, line judge Rusty Baynes, field judge James Coleman, side judge Eugene Hall, back judge Dino Paganelli and replay official Mike Wimmer.
Cheffers has been a NFL official since 2000 and became a referee in 2008. Twitter user Phillip McGruder noted the Chiefs are unbeaten in games worked by Cheffers since Patrick Mahomes became the starting quarterback.
“The referee that is working our game, Carl Cheffers, has done a couple of games this year, so he knows us, we know him,” Reid said. “Bryan, the umpire, we know him, the back judge, all these guys have worked our games and/or been in our training camp in years past.
“I think Bruce (Arians, the Buccaneers coach) would tell you the same thing, by the time you get to this one, they know you, they kind of know your players and they’ve watched tape. So they’ve got a pretty good feel on things.”
The officials do study film, as Reid noted. A story on NFL.com says coaches sometimes send plays to Al Riveron, the NFL’s senior vice president of officiating, “to make sure the formation or some other aspect of the play is legal. If it is, Riveron will share the video and explanation with the game referee, so the officiating crew will not be caught unaware.
“Officials use tablets to download and watch video of game situations between games. The tablets let them prepare for games anywhere, whether they are at home, on an airplane or in a hotel room.”
Football Zebras said Cheffers, 60, worked the AFC Divisional playoff game between the Bills and Ravens. That site noted Cheffers, a sales manager from Whittier, California, also has worked two conference championship games.
