When the Detroit Lions meet the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Conference Championship game on Sunday, it will be possibly the most significant game for their franchise since the Super Bowl.

Clete Blakeman is the referee assigned to this crucial game.

During the playoffs, the NFL employs a mixed crew of all-star referees; nevertheless, this season, crews led by Blakeman have called penalties lower than the league average. They committed 10.94 penalties per game on average during the 2023 regular season, as opposed to the NFL’s 11.36 average.

In their preview of the Conference Championship referee assignments, Football Zebras stated, “Clete Blakeman is the referee, who is in his 16th season and 14th as referee.” Blakeman has been assigned to 14 postseason games in his career, which includes 50 Super Bowls, 4 Conference Championships, 5 Divisional Playoffs, and 4 Wild Card Playoffs. His role in the Super Bowl was referee.

Even though Blakeman is an extremely experienced referee, his career as an official has also been marred by contentious calls. A quick Google search for “Clete Blakeman controversy” will yield a plethora of stories covering the topic, some from as recently as six weeks ago and some from his early NFL years.

There are a ton of those articles including Blakeman and the Lions as well. The term “illegal hands to the face” is bound to elicit a response, even though some Lions supporters may not know Blakeman by name.

Indeed, during a 2019 “Monday Night Football” game between the Lions and the Green Bay Packers, Blakeman’s crew called two (!) unlawful hands to the face calls. The Packers extended drives as a result of both calls, scoring 10 points and defeating Detroit 23–22.The NFL would later acknowledge that the officials had committed errors.

Blakeman has been assigned to five Lions games since this one. Detroit has only won once this season, against the Los Angeles Raiders 26-14 on Monday Night Football in Week 8. The team has lost four of those games. It’s also important to note that Blakeman’s squad called more penalties on the winning club in each of those games.

On Sunday, let’s hope for a clean game with minimal Blakeman action.