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There are plenty of fascinating stories in the 2022 Super Bowl. However, one of the most interesting characters won’t be wearing Los Angeles Rams or Cincinnati Bengals gear. NFL referee Ron Torbert is officiating the game, and his story is unique.

In addition to his background, there is something else NFL fans will want to know about Torbert. That is, when he’s officiating, you should bet the over.

Ron Torbert will be the referee of the 2022 Super Bowl

Baltimore-area native Ron Torbert will be the referee for Super Bowl 56 between the LA Rams and Cincinnati Bengals at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

Torbert is a graduate of Harvard Law School and practiced law before becoming an NFL official, per the Boston Globe. He started in the league in 2010 as a back judge and side judge. In 2014, the NFL promoted him to a referee position, where Torbert got to lead his own crew.

This is Torbert’s first Super Bowl at the age of 58. With his appointment to this game, he becomes the third Black referee to officiate a Super Bowl, joining Mike Carey (2008) and Jerome Boger (2013).

Working with Torbert in the Big Game will be an officiating crew of 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, and replay assistant Sean McKee.

The over could be a good bet with Torbert in charge of the game

The referee and his crew play a significant role in both the flow and outcome of an NFL game. Playoff and Super Bowl crews aren’t the same as the regular season. They’re basically all-star crews. However, there are still tidbits to glean from the ref.

According to Bookies.com, Torbert will let the teams play. In 2021, his crew threw the fourth-fewest flags per game (12.2) in the NFL for the fifth-fewest penalty yards (92.2).

Combine those numbers with the fact that the LA Rams and Cincinnati Bengals were the second- and sixth-least penalized teams this season, respectively, and we should be looking at a relatively referee-free game on Super Bowl Sunday.

So, NFL gamblers want to know, what does all this mean for Super Bowl betting?

Games that Torbert refereed this season were 12-6 hitting the under. That doesn’t tell the whole story, though.

In the first 12 games of the season for Torbert, the under hit every time. However, in his last six games of the season, scoring exploded, and his games averaged an incredible 61.6 points per game. That streak ended in the playoffs with San Francisco 49ers 13, Green Bay Packers 10, but that had little to do with the officiating.

Between the Bengals and Rams’ high-powered offense, the team’s penalty discipline, Torbert’s flag-throwing tendencies, and teams’ late-season penchant for scoring points with the referee involved, it looks like the over could be a good bet in Super Bowl 56.

How does the NFL decide who referees the Super Bowl? 

Referee Ron Torbert, who is officiating the 2022 Super Bowl, looks on during the game between the Los Angeles Chargers and the New England Patriots at SoFi Stadium on October 31, 2021 in Inglewood, California.
Super Bowl 56 referee Ron Torbert | Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images.

Before 2004, the NFL graded officiating crews, not individual officials, to decide who got to work postseason football games.

However, starting in the ’04 season, the league began grading individuals and put together new “all-star” crews for playoff games and the Super Bowl based on their season’s worth of grades.

Former director of NFL officiating Dean Blandino, now a rules expert for FOX, told the Philly Voice in 2015 that the grading system “takes into account the calls made and missed, and calls that should have been made.”

Once graded, the league splits officials into three tiers. Tier one officials will work playoff games and the Super Bowl, tier two will “fill in the blanks” when needed, and tier three “could be up for employment review.”

In order to decide which tier one officials get in the biggest games of the season, Blandino explained that the NFL considers other criteria, such as “decisiveness, clarity of explanations, control of the game, physical fitness, and several other categories.”

While there are still proponents of keeping officiating crews intact into the postseason, the current system allows for the best of the best to work the most important games. This is why referee Ron Torbert and this crew will be officiating the 2022 Super Bowl.

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Tim Crean

Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sportscasting in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs.

As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He’s a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early ’90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA.

When he’s not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.