We don’t yet know which two teams will be battling it out under the bright lights of Super Bowl LX, but we do know who’ll be wearing the white hat at midfield when the game kicks off. The NFL has tapped veteran official Shawn Smith to serve as the referee for this year’s championship game - his first time in the Super Bowl spotlight.
Smith, 54, has been part of the NFL officiating ranks since 2015, when he started as an umpire. He was promoted to referee in 2018 and has since built a solid postseason résumé.
This year, he already worked a playoff game - the Patriots’ 28-16 win over the Texans in the Divisional Round. That game marked his 10th career postseason assignment, but it’ll be the first time he’s been handed the whistle for the league’s biggest stage.
To put that in perspective, all of Smith’s previous playoff work has come in the Wild Card (five games), Divisional (three games), or Conference Championship rounds (two games). That makes him just the second official in the past eight Super Bowls to be named referee without prior Super Bowl experience. The last time the NFL went this route was Super Bowl LVI, when Ron Torbert made his Super Bowl debut in a Rams-Bengals showdown.
And speaking of the Rams - if they manage to punch their ticket to the big game with a win over the Seahawks on Sunday, they could find themselves once again playing under a first-time Super Bowl referee. But Smith is no stranger to some of the teams still in the mix.
Let’s take a look at how a few of those squads have fared with Smith on the field over the past five seasons:
- Broncos: They’ve seen plenty of Smith recently. He officiated two of their games this season - a 23-20 loss to the Chargers in Week 3, and a 24-17 win over the Raiders in Week 14.
- Seahawks: Seattle hasn’t crossed paths with Smith at all in 2025.
In fact, the last time he officiated one of their games was back in Week 6 of the 2024 season, when the Seahawks fell to the Giants, 29-20.
For fans who like a clean game - and coaches who prefer not to see laundry flying all over the field - there’s something else worth noting about Smith. In 2025, his crew averaged just 13.94 penalties per game, according to NFLPenalties.com. That puts them among the more disciplined crews in the league - one of only six that averaged fewer than 14 flags per game.
Of course, Smith won’t be working with his regular crew in the Super Bowl. The NFL assembles an “all-star” officiating team for the big game, pulling the highest-graded officials from across the league. But his Super Bowl crew won’t be short on experience.
Joining Smith in Super Bowl LX will be:
- Umpire: Roy Ellison
- Down Judge: Dana McKenzie
- Line Judge: Julian Mapp
- Side Judge: Boris Cheek
- Field Judge: Jason Ledet
- Back Judge: Greg Steed
- Replay Official: Andrew Lambert
It’ll be the fourth Super Bowl appearance for both Ellison and Cheek, while Steed will be working his third, and McKenzie his second. So while Smith will be making his Super Bowl debut, he’ll be surrounded by a veteran crew that knows how to handle the moment.
Bottom line: the NFL is putting a steady, experienced hand in charge of Super Bowl LX. Smith has worked his way up over a decade in the league, and now he gets the call for the biggest game of the year. Whoever ends up playing in Las Vegas, they’ll know the officiating is in capable hands.