Well, it's official (ha!): the referee for Super Bowl XLI between the Colts and Bears will be Tony Corrente. As we did before the Conference Championship games, let's break down penalty tendencies, FO-style, using our regular season penalty database. 

NOTE: Postseason crews are not the same ones assigned to the referee all season - these are "all-star" crews. Because of that, it's not quite as easy to get a comprehensive picture, but the referee has more than enough effect on the game to make season tendencies worthwhile to analyze. For the record, Corrente's crew consists of umpire Carl Paganelli and back judge Perry Paganelli - the first brothers ever to work a Super Bowl together, according to SuperBowl.com - along with head linesman George Hayward, line judge Ron Marinucci, field judge Jim Saracino, side judge John Parry, and replay assistant Mark Burns. 

What is Corrente's role? Specifically, the referee in any game has jurisdiction over time, down and distance, announcing all penalties, counting the number of offensive players, signaling the back judge as to when to start the 25-second clock, and which receivers are eligible. Generally, he's the overseer and the arbiter of all penalty disputes between crews - he's the traffic cop. 

This will be Corrente's first Super Bowl as a referee, though he was the alternate in Super Bowl XL. A veteran of the Big West and Western Athletic Conferences, the La Mirada, California resident officiated Alamo, Aloha and Rose Bowls before becoming an NFL back judge in 1995. At the beginning of the 1998 season, he was promoted to referee. Corrente has worked three postseason games, including the 2001 NFC Championship game between the Giants and Vikings. In the off-season, he teaches high school social sciences. 

In 2006, Corrente's crew called more penalties than any other - 242 for 1,590 yards. The crew led the NFL in defensive holding (15) and was on the high side of just about every other common call. 

As for the two teams playing, the Bears and Colts were just about even in false starts (Chicago's 22 to Indy's 23), but the Bears were flagged for holding almost twice as often - 23 to 11. (Chicago opponents were also flagged for holding twice as often as Indianapolis opponents, so this could have more to do with the referees and less with the two teams themselves.) Other notable discrepancies: Chicago racked up seven more defensive offside calls (18-11), and neither team had many calls for defensive pass interference (Colts 4, Bears 2). Each team had three of the ever-nebulous illegal contact calls, and four roughing the passer penalties. Chicago totaled 133 penalties - fourth-most in the league behind the Vikings, Lions, Cardinals and Rams. Indianapolis' 95 flags ranked seventh-fewest in the NFL. 

Bears games are messy affairs in general, as evidenced by the fact that teams playing them were penalized far more then any other - 154 to the 98 calls against teams playing the Colts. Again, this could be related to the teams themselves, or to the specific refs involved. Chicago's defense precipitated a league-leading 31 false starts, one more than Minnesota's. Surprisingly, Indy's air attack caused only four defensive pass interference penalties and five illegal contact calls, a fact with which Colts team president Bill Polian is no doubt very familiar.

The final question regarding the officiating in this Super Bowl is how the crew will react, and how they may be asked to react, after the controversy surrounding Super Bowl XL. Bill Leavy's crew was raked over the coals by the media right after the game, and the standard Mike Pereira damage control on the NFL Network's Official Review show did little good outside of the Pittsburgh area. It took a surprising amount of time for the furor to die down. Will this crew ignore last year's fallout and call 'em as they see 'em (which means calling them more often than usual) or will the common postseason refrain of "Let them play!" rule the day? 

Once again, keep your eye on the third team when Super Sunday rolls around.

Post by Doug Farrar