Temper some of the angst that flaggy Walt Anderson is the referee for the Seahawks’ playoff opener.
Numbers-driven Seahawks fans have been crunching mad since learning this week the NFL assigned Anderson, a 17-year veteran referee, to Saturday night’s NFC wild-card playoff game at Dallas. That’s because Anderson’s crew was one of the more penalizing ones in the league during the regular season. It called Seattle for its second-most penalty yards this season the one time it worked a Seahawks game, in October.
But in postseason games referees lead “all-star” crews, combinations of highly-rated linesmen, back judges, side judges, etc.