The football season is just a couple of blinks away from now. The Baltimore Ravens will get the chance to vindicate themselves from the AFC Championship hang-up against the Kansas City Chiefs last year. But as it happens, the back-to-back Super Bowl winning team has an old friend by their side. A friend that doesn’t let any illegal formation fly under his radar.

On Tuesday, the NFL announced the referee crew for the 2024 season kick off game happening at the Arrowhead Stadium. The season opener will be officiated by someone who gave Tom Brady the first unsportsmanlike conduct penalty of his career.

Who is officiating the 2024 NFL Kickoff game?

The NFL just announced that this year’s kickoff game will be officiated by Shawn Hochuli, a referee famous for keeping tab on the penalties. People in Buffalo don’t like him, and you’d understand why later down the line. Being in the league since 2014 and donning the #83, this will be the 12 Chiefs football game he’ll be officiating as he proceeds to his seventh league year.

Ref Hochuli loves calling the illegal formation penalties! In the last year’s AFC divisional round game against the Bills, he gave 5 penalties for 28 yards to the Bills while the Chiefs got away with two penalties for 15 yards, per KC Kingdom. There’s something interesting that Chris Owens of Country 106.5 WYRK said about Hochuli and his crew.

“Hochuli is known for calling a penalty-filled game. He’s called 347 yards in penalties on the Bills in the last four games he’s officiated for them. He’s also the head official for Bills game in Philadelphia, where the crew missed an obvious horse-collar tackle on Josh Allen, which likely would have resulted in a red zone touchdown,” wrote Owen in his January column.

It’s also noteworthy that last year, he officiated two Chiefs games (one against the Pats and other against the Broncos) and the KC team ended up winning both. Further, with Hochuli as head ref, home teams have managed to win 58.8% of the time, giving the Chiefs an edge in the conversation.

Shawn Hochuli made his presence felt in the 2024 preseason

One of the most noticeable moments of the preseason games came when the New England Patriots went against the Washington Commanders. Drake Maye threw an amazing touchdown pass to KJ Osborn. However, the touchdown was nullified because of an illegal formation call.

“Illegal formation, once again, left tackle No. 77 was lined up in the backfield,” Hochuli said in the game. “In the first half alone, LT Chukwuma Okorafor and RT Mike Onwenu were called for four combined illegal formation penalties,” per Yard Barker.

Coming back to the current scenario, the Kansas City Chiefs are 9-2 with Hochuli as the head referee. With his presence in a 12th game, how do you expect things to look for the reigning champions? Let us know your thoughts below.