Pats Pulpit
The New England Patriots and Houston Texans will not be the only teams on the field for Sunday’s divisional playoff game at Gillette Stadium. The third one, those wearing black and white stripes, will be led by referee Shawn Smith, as was announced by the NFL.
Officiating website Football Zebras had to say the following about Smith:
Shawn Smith is the referee, who is in his 11th season and 8th as referee. This is Smith’s 10th postseason assignment, including 5 Wild Card Playoffs, 3 Divisional Playoffs and 2 Conference Championships.
Since becoming a referee in 2018, Smith has called eight New England games. They are 4-4 in those contests, with the most recent of them being a 33-15 win over the New York Giants in Week 13. That day, the Patriots were flagged four times in front of their home crowd, with the three penalties that were accepted costing them 30 yards of field position. The Giants were penalized on five occasions losing 30 yards as well on four accepted calls.
Overall in 2025, Smith has officiated 16 games with 194 accepted penalties among 229 total flags thrown. His most-called infractions this season are false start (34+0), offensive holding (29+5) and defensive pass interference (20+3).
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 14 Shawn Smith
U 11 Scott Walker (Bill Vinovich)
DJ 8 Dana McKenzie (Clete Blakeman)
LJ 10 Julian Mapp (Clete Blakeman)
FJ 72 Jason Ledet (Shawn Hochuli)
SJ 103 Eugene Hall (Carl Cheffers)
BJ 27 Grantis Bell (Tra Blake)
Replay official: Andrew Lambert
Replay assistant: Julie Johnson
Alternates: Alex Kemp (R), Mike Morton (U), Mark Stewart (LJ), Dominique Pender (SJ), Todd Prukop (BJ)
Kickoff between the Patriots and Texans at Gillette Stadium has been scheduled for 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan. 18.
