Pats Pulpit
The New England Patriots will enter the NFL playoffs on Sunday night against the Los Angeles Chargers, and they will do so under the watchful eye of Ron Torbert. As was announced by the NFL, Torbert has been assigned referee for the wild card matchup.
Officiating website Football Zebras had to say the following about the 62-year-old.
The Sunday night game in Foxborough will have Ron Torbert at referee, who is in his 16th season and 12th as referee. This is Torbert’s 15th postseason assignment, including 5 Wild Card Playoffs, 7 Divisional Playoffs, a Conference Championship, and Super Bowls LVI and LIX. Both of his Super Bowl assignments were as a referee.
Since becoming a referee in 2014, Torbert has called 12 Patriots games. They are 7-5 in those contests, including 41-28 win a over the Chargers in the 2018 divisional playoff round and a 27-24 victory against the same opponent during the 2021 season.
Also among the Patriots games Torbert has officiated so far in his career is a 20-13 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders to start this year’s regular season. In that particular game, New England was flagged nine times resulting in a loss of 70 yards; the Raiders were penalized a total of 12 times, with nine flags accepted for a total yardage of 81.
On the year, Torbert has officiated 16 games with 205 accepted penalties and 255 total flags thrown. By far his most-called penalties this season are offensive holding and false start with 43 and 40 infractions, respectively.
The full crew for Sunday’s game, which as usual for the postseason is an all-star ensemble, looks as follows (original crew of each member in parenthesis):
R 62 Ron Torbert
U 54 Steve Woods (Clay Martin)
DJ 84 Jay Bilbo (Shawn Smith)
LJ 75 Mark Stewart (Scott Novak)
FJ 25 Ryan Dickson (Ron Torbert)
SJ 7 Keith Washington (Ron Torbert)
BJ 82 Jimmy Russell (Shawn Hochuli)
Replay official: Mike Wimmer
Replay assistant: Artenzia Young-Seigler
Alternates: Scott Novak (R), Terry Killens (U), Kent Payne (LJ), Anthony Jeffries (SJ), Terrence Miles (BJ)
Kickoff between the Patriots and Chargers at Gillette Stadium has been scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan. 11.
