John Parry to officiate Super Bowl XLVI

John Parry, who headed his crew in the epic Saints-49ers playoff game on Saturday, is headed to Indianapolis to serve as the crew chief in Super Bowl XLVI.

As we noted on Sunday, we said he “won” the weekend amongst a field of solid officiating in most of this year’s playoff games. He (and his crew) was our pick the best of the divisional playoffs, since they maintained tight control of a game that see-sawed back and forth. One questionable call could have easily affected the outcome of the game.

Here is the crew that Parry will be leading, with the regular-season crews each official belongs to:

• R — #132 John Parry (12th year, 5th as referee)*
• U — #124 Carl Paganelli (13th year, Jerome Boger)
• HL — #24 Tom Stabile (17th year, Scott Green)
• LJ — #108 Gary Arthur (15th year, Ron Winter)*
• FJ — #60 Gary Cavaletto (9th year, Tony Corrente)*
• SJ — #125 Laird Hayes (17th year, Carl Cheffers)*
• BJ — #112 Tony Steratore (12th year, Boger)

*Four officials have experience in this year’s playoffs. Assigned to games in the Wild Card round were Arthur (Steelers-Broncos), Cavaletto (Lions-Saints), and Hayes (Falcons-Giants); and Parry is the aforementioned divisional playoff game.

There are five alternate officials also assigned to the Super Bowl to enter the game in case of an injury. They include Alberto Riverón (R), Bill Schuster (U from Gene Steratore’s crew), Wayne Mackie (HL, also from Steratore’s crew), Don Carlsen (SJ from Pete Morelli’s crew), Greg Wilson (BJ from Corrente’s crew). All of the alternates had assignments in this year’s playoffs, including Riverón’s assignment to the AFC Championship.