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NFL Playoffs: Officiating crews revealed for AFC, NFC Championship games

ns_headshot_2024-clearby: Nick Schultz01/20/25NickSchultz_7
NFL referee picks up a flag
© Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

The AFC and NFC Championship games are in place, and the officiating crews are also out. The NFL announced the referees who will call the Buffalo Bills vs. Kansas City Chiefs and Washington Commanders vs. Philadelphia Eagles.

Clete Blakeman will be the head official for the AFC Championship between the Bills and Chiefs, and Shawn Hochuli will wear the white hat for Commanders vs. Eagles in the NFC title game. Those games take place Sunday, with the NFC Championship kicking off at 3 p.m. ET on FOX and the AFC Championship on CBS at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Sunday will be Hochuli’s first-ever conference championship game, according to Football Zebras. Blakeman, meanwhile, will be calling his third in five years – including his second straight.

The officiating was a key talking point during last week’s Divisional Round games, particularly in the AFC. Some questionable calls in the Chiefs’ win over the Houston Texans drew ire from ESPN analyst Troy Aikman, who made his thoughts especially clear about an unnecessary roughness penalty when Patrick Mahomes slid.

“He’s a runner and I could not disagree with that one more,” Aikman said on the broadcast. “He barely gets hit. That’s the second penalty now that’s been called against the Texans.”

ESPN rules analyst and former NFL referee Russell Yurk chimed in to say he agreed with Aikman that there should not have been a flag on the play. Aikman then doubled down on his take, calling for the NFL to make a change to the rules.

“They’ve got to address it in the offseason,” Aikman said. “You can’t, as a quarterback, run around and play games with defenders and then be able to draw a penalty.”

The penalty call ended up being a costly one, as the Chiefs would go on to score a touchdown on the drive and go up 20-12. The Texans failed to complete a comeback and lost the game, 23-14.

That sent Kansas City to its seventh consecutive AFC Championship and a rematch against the Buffalo Bills, who handed the Chiefs their lone regular-season loss. As for the NFC Championship, the Eagles held on to defeat the Los Angeles Rams in the Divisional Round thanks to a key sack by Jared Verse as the Rams got into the red zone. They will take on a surging Commanders team, led by No. 2 overall pick Jayden Daniels, who fueled the upset win over the Detroit Lions on Saturday.

Chandler Vessels contributed to this report.