The officiating crews for each of the NFL Wildcard Playoff games were announced Monday afternoon, with the Buffalo Bills’ matchup versus the Denver Broncos drawing a familiar face in Bill Vinovich. Here’s what you need to know about this officiating crew and how it applies to the Bills.

Fans watching this Sunday’s game should be pleased to learn that Vinovich’s crew has thrown the least amount of flags among crews that have officiated all 16 games this season, with just 207 total flags called. Beyond that, Vinovich’s crew also called the least amount of flags in 2021 and 2022, per 9NEWS Denver’s Mike Klis.

This statistic bodes well for the Bills, as they’ve taken the 11th most penalties this season, and 3rd most among playoff teams.

Vinovich’s crew has been the officiating team for some notable Bills losses in recent years. He was the lead referee for the Bills’ 38-24 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2021 AFC championship game, and also saw the Bills fall to the New England Patriots 10-14 during the infamous wind game in 2021.

More recently, he was the referee that made the call for too many men on the field during the Bills’ 2023 loss to the Denver Broncos, which gave K Will Lutz a second opportunity on a game-winning field goal. In that same drive, Vinovich called a pass interference on CB Taron Johnson which was what set up the go-ahead kick in the first place.

Bill Vinovich may be a name Bills fans could recognize, but not for the right reasons.

Vinovich has gained some notoriety over the years, including with the Bills and their fans specifically. In the 2022 Week 15 matchup versus the Bills and the Dolphins, Vinovich stopped play to plead with fans to stop throwing snowballs onto the field. “We’ve just been informed that if a snowball hits someone, it’ll be a 15-yard penalty against Buffalo,” Vinovich told fans at Highmark Stadium, even though no such rule exists pertaining to fan interference.

Most notably, Vinovich’s crew was the officiating team for the 2018 NFC championship game between the Los Angeles Rams and the New Orleans Saints, the latter being Broncos head coach Sean Payton’s former team. Vinovich gained notoriety from that game due to a defensive pass interference no-call, which would’ve allowed the Saints to run down the clock and defeat the Rams. Instead, the Rams forced overtime off a game-tying field goal and defeated the Saints, bringing them to Super Bowl 53.

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