Carl Cheffers, who refereed Super Bowl LI between the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons and Super Bowl LV between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, will be the referee for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week 16 matchup against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. NFL Communications announced that Cheffers would be the referee.
Cheffers’ crew has called the fourth-most penalties in the league this season, with 202 total, per nflpenalties.com. They just came off working the Week 15 Thursday Night Football matchup between the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where they called a season-high 23 penalties. Cheffers hasn’t worked a Steelers game yet this season, but he has worked a Lions game, refereeing their Week 5 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium.
This season, 109 of Cheffers’ 202 penalties have been called against the visiting team, with 93 against the home team. His crew has called 44 false start penalties and 40 offensive holding penalties, significantly more than their third-most-called penalty, defensive pass interference, which has been called 17 times.
The Steelers haven’t seen Cheffers since 2023, when he worked the team’s Wild Card Round loss to the Buffalo Bills. That season, he also worked Pittsburgh’s Week 5 win over the Baltimore Ravens. He called just five penalties in Pittsburgh’s victory over Baltimore and called eight in the Wild Card Round loss. Last season, he worked the playoffs, getting an assignment for the divisional round matchup between the Bills and the Ravens that Buffalo ultimately won.
Before becoming an NFL referee, Cheffers worked as a high school football referee and as a referee for the then Pac-10 and WAC. He entered the NFL in 2000 as a side judge but was promoted to referee ahead of the 2008 season. He’s followed in his father’s footsteps, as his dad, Jim, was also a football official, working games in the Pac-10, per referee.com. In the off-season, Cheffers works for Johnson Control Batteries, a battery manufacturer.