Super Bowl Officiating Crew

Yesterday we mentioned that Mike Carey will become the first african american to be the head official for a Super Bowl. Well... just like Mike, these guys were also rated #1 at their position based on merit and will join Carey for the big game. The rest of the Super Bowl officiating crew, with their regular season crew chief is in parenthesis:

Umpire: Tony Michalek (Parry)
Head linesman: Gary Slaughter (Leavy)
Line judge: Carl Johnson (Austin)
Field judge: Boris Cheek (Green)
Side judge: Larry Rose (Green)
Back judge: Scott Helverson (Hochuli)
Alternate referee: Walt Coleman (Coleman)
Alternate umpire: Dan Ferrell (Carey)
Alternate: Ed Camp (Austin)
Alternate: Carl Cheffers (Nemmers)
Alternate: Greg Steed (Triplette)

It was also mentioned that it's purely coincidence that Carey was the head referee for the Patriots and Giants week 17 game. Carey and crew were apparently chosen last week before the NFL knew who the two Super Bowl teams would be. In case you were wondering, during that game in week 17, there were 5 penalties accepted for 42 yards against the Patriots and there were 5 penalties accepted for 53 yards against the Giants.

In other related Super Bowl officiating news... our friendly reader Mile High did some research on the Super Bowl refs and found some interesting tidbits going all the way to the 1990 season:

-- Walt Anderson has been a white hat since 2003. He has done playoff games each of the last four seasons (2004-2007; can't get a playoff assignment in the first year).
-- Gerry Austin has been a white hat since 1990. The only years he has missed the playoffs were 1990, 1991 (couldn't do first two years?), 2004 and 2005
-- Mike Carey has been the most consistent. He has been a white hat since 1995. He's only missed the playoffs in 1995 and 1996 (again, needed three years' of experience?)
-- Bill Carrollo became a white hat in 1996. He's only missed 1996, 1997, 2005 and 2007. Interesting he has missed two of the past three and has four conference title games and a Super Bowl since 1999.
-- Walt Coleman has been a white hat since 1995. Has only missed 1995, 2002 and 2006 in the playoffs.
-- Ed Hochuli has been a white hat since 1992. He's only missed 1992 (obvious) and 2006 (don't know what's up with him missing last year, but that's pretty interesting)
-- Terry McAulay (I like how he works a game) has been a white hat since 2001. He's only missed 2001 and 2003. 2003 is very strange, actually. He went championship game (2002), missed (2003), divisional and super bowl (2004), championship game (2005), championship game (2006), championship game (2007)
-- Peter Morelli: White hat since 2003. Has only missed 2003.

Thanks MH! Keep the tips/suggestions/tidbits coming.