Giants Draw Flag-happy Officiating Crew for Week 15 Tilts vs. Washington

NFL referee Bill Vinovich has worked one other Giants game this season that Giants fans would just as soon like to forget.

NFL referee Bill Vinovich's crew has been assigned to work the Giants-Commanders game. | Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Bill Vinovich, a 20-year NFL official who spent the last 17 seasons as a referee, will lead his crew in officiating the New York Giants’ Week 15 home game against the Washington Commanders.

It is the second time this season that Vinovich’s crew will work a Giants game. The last time they were assigned to Big Blue was in Week 2, the now-infamous penalty flag parade that saw both teams draw a whopping 26 flags between them, 12 on the home team, the Cowboys, and 14 on the Giants.

Those flags accounted for an eye-watering 266 penalty yards. And in that game, five penalties were declined, which would have made it even worse. 

That game is one of three in which Vinovich’s crew has thrown at least 22 flags in a contest, according to NFLPenalties.com.

Not surprisingly, Vinovich’s crew has called the third-most penalties in the league this year, coming in at 188, behind league leader Alex Moore (204) and Shawn Hochuli (197).  

This is the third time in two seasons the Giants have drawn Vinovich’s crew. Last year, he worked their Week 17 game against the Indianapolis Colts, with the two teams drawing 10 penalties.

Vinovich’s crew has thrown just 10 or fewer flags once this season, that coming in a Week 13 game between the Bucs and Cardinals.

Vinovich’s crew consists of just one newcomer from a year ago: replay assistant Jim Van Geffen, who comes from Land Clark’s crew. 

Otherwise, the rest of his crew includes umpire Scott Walker, down judge Dale Keller, line judge Tripp Sutter, field judge Aaron Santi, side judge Jimmy Buchanan, back judge Todd Prukop, and replay official Chad Wakefield. 

Vinovich is the second-longest tenured referee in the league, his 17 years at the position just one season behind that of Carl Cheffers.

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