In an ideal world, the names of the officials calling Sunday’s NFC and AFC championship games wouldn’t matter. But this is sports, and human error comes into play. That applies to the officials carrying whistles in addition to the players and coaches in the arena. If history — recent and otherwise — is any indication, officials will make some headlines of their own this weekend.
Let’s take a look at the officiating crews calling this weekend’s championship games in Santa Clara and Baltimore and how they’ve impacted games in the past.
Up first, referee Clete Blakeman’s crew is calling the NFC championship game between the Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers. This fact already has Lions fans irked. And this is the fan base that was burned by the biggest officiating controversy of the regular season.
The Lions and Blakeman have history. Blakeman oversaw the crew in an infamous 2019 game against the rival Packers that had multiple controversial calls trigger a rally for a Green Bay win.
Detroit led that Monday night game 22-13 in the fourth quarter. With Green Bay driving, the Lions sacked Aaron Rodgers to set up fourth-and-21 and an obvious punt situation. But umpire Jeff Rice flagged Trey Flowers for an illegal hands to the face penalty that gave the Packers a first down. Green Bay went on to score a touchdown on the drive and cut its deficit to 22-20.
Replay shows that Flowers had a hold of David Bakhtiari’s shoulder pad on the play, not his neck or facemask as is required for the penalty. His hand did slip up to touch the base of Bakhtiari’s helmet at the last moment.
The Lions didn’t score again, and the Packers went on to kick a game-winning field goal as time expired. On that field-goal drive, Flowers was again flagged for an illegal hands to the face penalty when an infraction clearly didn’t occur. The NFL office acknowledged the next day that the second flag should not have been thrown. Lions players and fans were understandably furious.
Rice, who threw both flags, is no longer on Blakeman’s crew. But Lions fans are well aware of Blakeman’s name and will be ready to pounce at the first sign of questionable officiating in San Francisco’s favor on Sunday.
Blakeman has spent 16 seasons as an NFL official, including 14 as a referee. Sunday will mark the 14th playoff game he has officiated. He refereed Super Bowl 50 between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers