Who is the head referee for Super Bowl LIX? Experienced official gets honour of calling NFL’s showpiece event

The Super Bowl is the biggest sporting event in America, which means the referee will have a lot of eyes on him.

This year’s head official will be Ron Torbert, and he could be about to become a household star or villain.

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The 61-year-old has been picked as the main man for this weekend’s clash in New Orleans.

The Kansas City Chiefs are looking to become the first NFL side to win three consecutive Super Bowls, and the Philadelphia Eagles will be out to stop them.

Torbert will no doubt hope he doesn’t have to make any controversial calls as he takes charge of Super Bowl LIX.

Who is the head referee for Super Bowl LIX?

Torbert started officiating American football in 1989 at school level.

He quickly progressed through the ranks and moved up to college level.

The Michigan State University graduate got the chance to officiate for NFL Europe before joining the top league in 2010.

There, he started as a side judge before being promoted in 2014.

So, he has been an NFL referee for 11 years and has taken charge of some big games.

This includes the 2022 Super Bowl, where the LA Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals.

So Torbert is no stranger to the big stage and to be selected again is a great honour.

Away from the field, he is a practising attorney.

Torbert graduated from Harvard Law School and has used that degree to try and advance all sporting officials at all levels.

In terms of heading into the Super Bowl, Torbert and his team are yet to take charge of a Chiefs match this season.

But his refereeing unit do call a lot of penalties, handing out the third-most this year with 235.

The top three calls made by Torbert’s crew this campaign were offensive holding (49), false starts (41) and defensive pass interference (20).

The one thing that Torbert will want to avoid is any controversial calls.

However, in his one Super Bowl appearance so far, he did actually come across one.

With the Bengals leading the Rams late on, Cincinnati’s linebacker Logan Wilson was penalised for holding Cooper Kupp on a third-and-goal incompletion.

The Rams got a first down and turned the game on its head soon after.

It was widely seen as a tough call for the referee to make, and he’ll just hope this Super Bowl is a lot more straightforward.