The Detroit Lions and Baltimore Ravens are squaring off in a high-profile battle on Monday Night Football. Both teams have Super Bowl aspirations, are considered conference powers, and have been picked by many pundits, experts, and commentators to meet each other in the Super Bowl.
Now, they both get to face off against each other under the lights on a nationally televised game. It’s only fitting that the game gets assigned to one of the top referees and his crew in the NFL.
Who are the referees for Monday night football?
To say that this is a potential Super Bowl preview wouldn’t be wrong. The intensity is likely to be through the roof. Both teams had disappointing Week 1 performances that left them angry and ticked off enough to beat down lesser divisional foes the following week.
Bill Vinovich leads the crew officiating the game between the Lions and Ravens. He’s in his 17th season and has refereed three Super Bowls, the most recent being Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.
Vinovich’s crews tend towards the lower end regarding the number of penalties they call. Over 17 games in 2024, Vinovich’s crew called the fifth fewest penalties in the league with 197 and the sixth fewest penalty yards with 1,591. Last year, his crew averaged just 11.59 flags per game.
Here’s the complete list of Vinovich’s crew for tonight’s game.
- Umpire: Scott Walker
- Down Judge: Dale Keller
- Line Judge: Tripp Sutter
- Field Judge: Aaron Santi
- Side Judge: Jimmy Buchanan
- Back Judge: Todd Prukop
- Replay Official: Chad Wakefield
- Replay Assistant: Jim Van Geffen
We’re just two games into the 2025 season, so the sample’s small, but there is a high variance between how his crew called their Week 1 matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets and their Week 2 tilt between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys.
Week 1 saw Vinovich’s crew call a relatively low 11 penalties for only 100 yards: seven on the Jets and just four on the Steelers. However, the Giants and Cowboys game was a division rivalry game, and the two teams ended up garnering a whopping 26 penalties for 266 yards.
Considering this is a Super Bowl-quality matchup, it’s no surprise that the NFL would assign one of its more experienced and heralded crews to officiate the game.
With luck, the Lions and Ravens will give us that kind of game. Everyone loves a Monday Night with postseason intensity.
