Broncos, Payton have a history with Thursday night referee — and it isn’t good

One can forgive Broncos fans and Sean Payton if the sight of Bill Vinovich makes them break out in hives.

They’ll see the longtime referee Thursday night, as his crew has been assigned to work Denver’s Thursday Night FootbalL clash against the Las Vegas Raiders. The Broncos are 5-11 when he is the referee.

Now, Vinovich and his crew are generally held in good favor by the NFL in recent years. He was the referee for Super Bowl XLIX, LIV and LVIII, and he has called a conference championship or Super Bowl in five of the past seven seasons. He’s officiated at least one playoff game in 10 consecutive postseasons.

But he and his crew also were responsible for one of the worst missed calls in NFL history — the pass-interference no-call in the 2018 NFC Championship Game between Payton’s New Orleans Saints and the Los Angeles Rams.

Los Angeles cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman slammed into Saints wide receiver Tommylee Lewis before a pass from Drew Brees arrived on third-and-10 with 1:45 remaining and the Saints at the Rams’ 13-yard line with the game tied.

Had the penalty been called, New Orleans would have had first-and-goal at the 6-yard line, and with Los Angeles in possession of just one timeout, the Saints could have likely drained all but approximately 15 seconds from the clock before kicking a game-winning Wil Lutz field goal. Instead, the field goal happened on the next play, and the Rams had plenty of time to mount a game-tying drive to force overtime, where they won it after a quick field-goal drive following an interception of Brees.

The NFL’s senior vice president of officiating at the time, Al Riveron, admitted the call was blown in a subsequent conversation with Payton. But that wasn’t enough to salve the wound.

“I would say honestly after the game for two to three days, much like normal people, I sat, probably didn’t come out of my room, I ate Jeni’s ice cream, and watched Netflix for three straight days,” Payton said days later.

“There are certain vices you gravitate to. For me, it’s probably sugar.”

BRONCOS HAVE A ROUGH RECORD WITH VINOVICH AT THE WHISTLE

Denver’s record with Vinovich as the referee not only includes last January’s wild-card loss, but the crushing divisional-round defeat to the Baltimore Ravens on Jan. 12, 2013, a game that featured a number of controversial calls that drew the critique of at least one Hall of Fame coach on social media.

At home, the Broncos are 1-6 when Vinovich’s crew officiates; their only win came in 2019 against the Cleveland Browns. That being said, their form has been better in the last decade; after going 1-7 in Vinovich-called games from 2004 through 2015; the Broncos are 4-4 since then.

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