Referee Gene Steratore throws the ball during a game between...

Referee Gene Steratore throws the ball during a game between the Giants and the Redskins at FedExField on Jan. 1, 2017, in Landover, Md. Credit: Getty Images/Patrick Smith

ATLANTA — Which team will have the most pressure on them come Super Bowl Sunday? It might not be the Rams or the Patriots. It might be the guys wearing the stripes.

Thanks to the universally decried botched call that played such a big role in deciding last week’s NFC title game between the Saints and the Rams, there will be a tremendous weight on referee John Parry and his crew to get their calls right in front of the sport’s largest annual audience. After two weeks of speculation and derision over the state of the NFL’s officiating, an apparent apology from the league office to the Saints for blowing the call, and no official statement from the NFL on the matter, it seems more imperative than ever that the zebras have a good showing on Sunday.

But former NFL referee Gene Steratore, who will work for CBS broadcasting the game as a rules analyst, said the guys on the field won’t feel any of that.

“Every year has certain plays that draw attention to us,” Steratore said on Tuesday at a CBS event. “Unfortunately, in the public venue, the attention is always drawn when there are mistakes. But all of the officials who are here have earned that through their talents. The pressure that comes with working this game, it can’t be enhanced any more than the initial pressure. But there is always a microscope.”

Steratore said despite the very obvious gaffe of not throwing a flag on a clear pass interference that played into the Rams’ comeback win over the Saints at the Superdome, the officiating in the NFL this season has been strong.

“I think all in all they did a great job,” he said. “I don’t think it’s been any worse than it has been in years past.”

Between the speed of the game and ambiguity in rules and judgment calls, it’s a difficult task to have to control the games.

Has the NFL become impossible to officiate correctly?

“No,” he said. “They’ve just made it more challenging.”

Which is why many want to see the use of instant replay expanded. Steratore is against that.

“I think we all fall into that rabbit hole thinking that replay is there and it can fix everything,” he said. “Honestly, the human element of the game – coaches, players and officials – that’s part of the excitement of the game. It’s those specific entities that are expressing and conveying their talents in their own way. That creates what we all love. But I do think the instant replay wording always takes us down that path  that in the event that they make a mistake we can fix it. I don’t think that’s a good avenue for us to go.”

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