The four teams that will play for the right to head to the Super Bowl were set last weekend. Now the two referees that will legislate the two conference championship games this weekend are also in place.
According to Mike Pereira of FOX Sports, Gene Steratore and Tony Corrente will be the head officials for the AFC and NFC Championship games on Sunday. Steratore will man the NFC game between the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks. Corrente will get the AFC battle between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos.
Steratore has not yet been assigned to work a Super Bowl in his time as a referee. Corrente was the head referee for Super Bowl XLI between the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears. Corrente also worked the 2009 AFC Championship game between the New York Jets and Indianapolis Colts and the 2000 NFC Championship between the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants.
Corrente battled throat cancer in 2011 that forced him to miss time during the season to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
Steratore and Corrente will not have their normal crews working with them this weekend. Officials for conference championship weekend are all mixed with officials that graded out strongly during the regular season. Those officials drawing conference championship assignments consist of those rating as the highest two overall percentages at each position of any not already working the Super Bowl.
As per league rules, we already know the referee for the Super Bowl will be one of the four that worked in the divisional round last week. Clete Blakeman, Terry McAulay, Carl Cheffers and Pete Morelli worked the four games last weekend and one of them will take the field in three weeks at MetLife Stadium for Super Bowl XLVIII. All officials that will staff the Super Bowl crew worked in games last week.