When the NFL announced its officiating assignments for the weekend’s wild-card round games, Bills fans were notably upset to see that Bill Vinovich’s crew was tabbed to work Buffalo’s game against the Broncos.
Vinovich has worked some big and controversial Bills losses in recent years, including the 2021 AFC title game loss to the Chiefs. So, the Bills probably braced themselves for some questionable calls come Sunday. And we had just that when the Broncos’ Patrick Surtain II got away with a blatant holding penalty in the end zone.
The Bills had to settle for a field goal due to the no-call, and Allen was justifiably livid with Vinovich.
Bad miss by the officiating here—clear holding on Denver, with the official standing right there. pic.twitter.com/aVeZ343Vin
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) January 12, 2025
But during the timeout, the entire exchange took an odd turn when Vinovich went up to Allen on the bench to seemingly take ownership of the missed call.
Bill Vinovich and Josh Allen having a chat pic.twitter.com/2LFbSXo6ua
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) January 12, 2025
It’s really not a ref’s responsibility to do that, and it only raised more concerns from NFL fans. It wasn’t a great look — as if the missed call was bad enough.
Update: Allen said after the game that Vinovich wanted the Bills QB to calm down with the criticism.
This was how Twitter/X reacted
Never seen this before… Vinovich goes over to the sideline to apologize to Josh Allenpic.twitter.com/nKjvJHe9SQ
— Romi Bean (@Romi_Bean) January 12, 2025
Bill Vinovich is never beating the allegations.pic.twitter.com/IXNt0bZnVL
— Cody Nagel (@CodyNagel247) January 12, 2025
I have never seen something like this.
The ref is all the way to the Bills bench to apologize to Josh Allen pic.twitter.com/Q28HigzTbu
— Zac Stevens (@ZacStevensDNVR) January 12, 2025
The ref went to Josh Allen on the bench to apologize?
Yeah we ain’t winning 😂😂😂
— Michael🇲🇽 (@RespectMyCos) January 12, 2025
Nah this is crazy. The ref literally walked all the way to Allen on the bench apologize. That’s crazy 🤣 pic.twitter.com/PG5ZDx8EeS
— Brian (@Bmore_Sports8) January 12, 2025
Thats a bad call against the broncos. But I’m sure we’ll see the ref go over to Sean Peyton and let him know like they did for Josh Allen. pic.twitter.com/muxS8BHtDB
— Josh The Boxer (@JoshTheBoxerDog) January 12, 2025
Josh Allen getting an apology from the ref during a playoff game ? This is nasty work lmao pic.twitter.com/Q85APwyIrh
— John (@iam_johnw) January 12, 2025
