<
>

Ronald Torbert to serve as lead referee for Super Bowl LVI

Ronald Torbert will serve as the lead referee for Super Bowl LVI, the NFL announced Tuesday.

Torbert joined the NFL in 2010 as a side judge and was promoted to referee in 2014. He has been the referee for six playoff games since then, including twice in the wild-card round and four times in the divisional, most recently the San Francisco 49ers' 13-10 victory Saturday over the Green Bay Packers.

The NFL's Super Bowl officiating assignments are merit-based.

Torbert's regular-season crew averaged 12.3 flags per game -- the fourth-lowest among the league's 17 crews -- but he will work with a different group of officials in the Super Bowl, all of whom met the NFL's evaluation and experience criteria for the game.

The group, listed below, has a total of seven previous Super Bowls between them.

• Umpire: Bryan Neale

• Down judge: Derick Bowers

• Line judge: Carl Johnson

• Field judge: Rick Patterson

• Side judge: Keith Washington

• Back judge: Scott Helverson

• Replay official: Roddy Ames