NEW ORLEANS -- Two officials on the crew who will be presiding over Super Bowl LIX are in their third season of NFL officiating, which two former league heads of officiating said is a notable difference from the custom of prioritizing experience for the Super Bowl. In the past, NFL officials have needed five or more years of officiating experience in the league to qualify for Super Bowl consideration.
The league's officiating department restructured this past offseason and hired former umpire Ramon George as vice president of officiating training and development, succeeding Walt Anderson in the role.
George told ESPN he was responsible for assigning the Super Bowl crew.
"It's not collectively bargained to have a certain number of years [of experience]," George said. "That's just a rule that whomever is in the position to select, that is their philosophy. I don't live by that philosophy. If you are the best, then you should be on the field."
Down judge Max Causey and umpire Mike Morton, a former NFL player, are both in their third NFL seasons as officials, and it will be the third career postseason assignment for each. Morton also officiated the NFC Championship game, which strayed from another previous custom that kept Super Bowl officials out of the championship games to avoid any risk of controversy occurring in that round that might affect the Super Bowl.
"That's a huge departure," Mike Pereira, who was the NFL's VP of officiating from 2004-2009 and now a rules analyst for Fox, told reporters from the Super Bowl media center on Thursday. "I always felt like it took five years to get to the level to where you'll feel comfortable going in front of thousands of people, and now you've got not only a third-year official, you've got a third-year umpire who worked [the NFC Championship] in Philadelphia. When I saw this, I was very surprised."
NFL postseason officiating crews are known as all-star crews, because they feature the highest-graded officials, and the Super Bowl crew, theoretically, consists of the best officials at each position.
Pereira said that in his time as the league's VP of officiating, he would not have assigned an official to the Super Bowl who had less than five years of experience.
"You have to consider experience," he said. "Because this isn't a typical regular season game. It's not a typical wild card or division or championship either. This is like a whole different thing... adjusting to the speed of this game, speed and the size -- that's not easy to do. This is not the SEC, this is not the Big Ten. This is the NFL, where the speed is incredible at almost every position.... I don't think I ever would have changed my thinking about getting five seasons under your belt."
Causey officiated a wild-card game last season and a divisional round game this season, but never a championship game. Morton officiated a divisional round game last season and this year's NFC Championship.
"You're always thinking experience, and you want those officials to have championship game experience," Dean Blandino, who was the league's VP of officiating from 2013 to 2017 and is now a Fox rules analyst, told reporters. "Doesn't mean that officials without that experience can't do a good job, but it is different."
Pereira said that among NFL officials and those in the football rules industry, this departure from the norm has been a topic of conversation.
Referee Ron Torbert is in his 15th season and this is his second Super Bowl assignment, side judge Boris Cheek is in his 29th season and fourth Super Bowl assignment, and the other three members of the crew have between 7-10 years of experience.