Super Showdown: Super Bowl Referee and the Secret Behind Stopping Patrick Mahomes from Getting the Ball.

Yes, referees and officials are humans too, and of course they talk about the game they’re officiating while it’s happening.

Want proof? Here you go: With mics on referee Bill Vinovich in the fourth quarter of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl win over the San Francisco 49ers, he commented to his fellow official that you need “your best play that you have in your book right now, ’cause you don’t want to give [Patrick] Mahomes the ball back.”

Prescient, given what happened later. This was before that amazing play by Trent McDuffie on third down with two minutes left in the fourth, in which the cornerback blitzed and stopped what could have been the Niners getting a first down … and perhaps more.

Vinovich was correct if you apply it to overtime — Mahomes got the ball back, marched the Chiefs down the field and won his third ring.

Referees: They’re just like us!