Every Green Bay Packers-Chicago Bears game already arrives carrying a century of bad blood, inherited grudges, and the quiet understanding that nothing about this rivalry is ever normal. Add the postseason to the equation, and suddenly every whistle feels louder, every flag heavier.
On Saturday, when Green Bay and Chicago meet in the Wild Card round, the players won’t be the only ones under surveillance. The NFL has assigned Adrian Hill and his officiating crew to the game.
A Look at the Referees for the Packers-Bears Game
Adrian Hill is not new to this. He has been in the league for 16 seasons, seven of them as a referee, and this game will be his sixth postseason assignment. Five Wild Card games, one Divisional Round. The league clearly trusts him with games that matter, which is usually shorthand for: this crew won’t lose control of the night.
That doesn’t mean they’ll keep things quiet.
According to NFL Penalties, Hill’s crew ranks second in the NFL in flags per game this season, averaging 17.9. That number is especially striking when paired with another detail: Hill’s crew has only worked 14 games, the fewest of any officiating unit in the league.
Hill has not officiated a Packers game this season, but he has crossed paths with Chicago twice, calling one-score Bears wins over the Las Vegas Raiders and New York Giants. The last time Green Bay saw Hill was back in 2022, in an overtime win over the New England Patriots.
What really defines a Hill-officiated game, though, is how it is called on edges. His crew is notably strict in the passing game. Offensive holding is flagged more often than league average, about one extra call per game, but that’s just the beginning. Defensive pass interference is up 46% in Hill’s games, and illegal contact calls are more than doubled compared to the rest of the NFL.
Translated into plain football language: cornerbacks are not getting much grace. Physical coverage is a gamble. Handsy defense is a fast track to third-and-long becoming first-and-goal.
Curiously, that strictness softens elsewhere. His crew calls unnecessary roughness 44% less often than the league average, defensive offsides 60% less, and illegal use of hands 67% less. It creates a strange but consistent profile, meticulous about positioning and technique, less concerned with raw aggression.
That balance intersects differently for each team. The Packers come in as the league’s 18th-most penalized team overall, while the Bears sit sixth. Chicago’s offense has been particularly flag-prone, tied for third in offensive penalties, while Green Bay is near the bottom of that list. Defensively, the Packers are relatively disciplined; the Bears less so, according to Acme Packing Company.
Chicago ranks second in the NFL in pre-snap infractions, trailing only the New York Giants. Green Bay is tied for 15th. Then there are the outliers. The Bears are the league’s worst offenders for roughing the passer, averaging one every other game, and are tied for the league lead in intentional grounding. The Packers lead the NFL in facemask penalties and neutral zone infractions.
