The officiating crew in New England for the 2012 AFC Championship Game will be led by crew chief Bill Leavy. Leavy has been an official in the National Football League since 1995 and is a retired San Jose, California Police Officer and Firefighter, serving for 27 years.
(Source: FootballRefs.com)
The 65-year-old Leavy’s NFL resume includes eight playoff games and two Super Bowls. He is best known for his mistakes in Super Bowl XL that paved the way to the Steelers 5th Super Bowl title over the Seattle Seahawks by the score of 21-10.
Four years later Leavy apologized for his largely incompetent effort.
“It was a tough thing for me,” Levy said in reference to his Super Bowl XL failures.
“I kicked two calls in the fourth quarter and I impacted the game and as an official you never want to do that. It left me with a lot of sleepless nights and I think about it constantly. I’ll go to my grave wishing that I’d been better.”
During last year’s playoffs Leavy’s crew blew a call that should have been ruled a fumble by Greg Jennings during the New York Giants 37-20 victory over the host Green Bay Packers in a Divisional Playoff Game.
Fortunately the blown call, which was challenged, reviewed and shockingly upheld and lead to a touchdown scoring drive for Green Bay, did not affect the outcome of the game.
Combining Leavy’s inadequacies, Foxboro being the host town, Bill Belichick’s ability to manipulate officials and NFL poster child Tom Brady’s propensity to get his way, the Ravens could not only be up against Gillette Stadium’s 12th man, but also a 13th man wearing stripes.
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