The Super Bowl officials are the

officials An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of the ...

chosen for the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

, the

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

game of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL), the largest and most prestigious professional

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

league.

Selection

The NFL's highest-rated official at each position is selected to work the Super Bowl. This is determined by the league using an evaluation system to grade each official's calls during the year. However, only officials who have worked in the league for at least five seasons and have previously worked during the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

are eligible to officiate in a Super Bowl. A referee cannot work the Super Bowl at that position until she or he has been a referee for at least three seasons, while also meeting the five-year minimum service requirement. This has not always been the case. From

Super Bowl I The first AFL–NFL World Championship Game (known retroactively as Super BowlI and referred to in contemporaneous reports, including the game's radio broadcast, as the Super Bowl) was an American football game played on January 15, 1967, at th ...

to Super Bowl IV, when the game was the "AFL (

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, AFL–NFL merger, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Foot ...

)-NFL World Championship Game", the officiating crews consisted of members from both leagues. Then for

Super Bowl XXXVIII Super Bowl XXXVIII was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion 2003 Carolina Panthers season, Carolina Panthers and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion 2003 New England Patriots season, New E ...

and

Super Bowl XXXIX Super Bowl XXXIX was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles to decide the National Football League (NF ...

, the NFL selected the highest rated ''crew'' during the regular season. This was a reaction to several officiating mistakes during the 2002-03 playoffs, and the league felt that preserving the familiarity and cohesiveness of the officiating crews during the postseason might reduce the errors.

List of officials

''Note: A seven-official system was not used until

Super Bowl XIII Super Bowl XIII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion 1978 Pittsburgh Steelers season, Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion 1978 Dallas Cowboys season, Dallas Cow ...

. Beginning with

Super Bowl XXXIII Super Bowl XXXIII was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion and defending Super Bowl XXXII champion 1998 Denver Broncos season, Denver Broncos and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion ...

, the league swapped position titles with the field judge and back judge.''

AFL-NFL World Championships

NFL Championships

Note: prior to 2017, the Down Judge was known as the Head Linesman

Number of appearances

Throughout NFL history, five officials have been selected to work five Super Bowls and ten have been assigned to four Super Bowls.

Jerry Markbreit Jerry Markbreit (born March 23, 1935) is a former American football referee in the National Football League (NFL) for 23 seasons and became one of the most recognizable referees in the game. Markbreit officiated football games for 33 seasons. ...

is the only official to work four Super Bowls as the referee.

Notes and references

* {{Super Bowl *