14-year veteran NFL referee Bill Vinovich has been assigned to officiate the Kansas City Chiefs’ Week 4 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers according to Football Zebras.
Vinovich last officiated the Chiefs’ AFC championship game loss against the Cincinnati Bengals. That crew called four penalties on the Chiefs and just two penalties on the Bengals. He also officiated two big wins for the Chiefs last year, Week 1 against the Browns and Week 10 against the Raiders. Fans will likely recall that Vinovich was also the referee during the Super Bowl LIV win over the San Francisco 49ers. Overall, the Chiefs have a 10-5 career record in games where Vinovich has been the referee.
Vinovich has always had a reputation for letting players play and his crew’s penalty count is indicative of that this season. They’ve called the fewest penalties in the NFL through three games with 20 total penalties, but seven of those penalties were dismissed leaving the total at 13.
False start (4) and delay of game (3) are the only penalties that have been called more than once by this crew. They’re very consistent at letting receivers and defensive backs play with only one offensive pass interference call and no defensive pass interference calls on the season.
This should be a game where we don’t see any game-altering penalties like the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty called on Chris Jones at the end of last week’s game.
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