Sports

NFL’s choice of Boger as ref puzzles many

NEW ORLEANS — The second guessing continued yesterday after the NFL officially revealed its controversial choice for head referee in Super Bowl XLVII.

Though much more experienced officials were relegated to the sidelines or left out of the playoffs entirely, the league confirmed reports Jerome Boger would be in charge of the seven-man crew for Sunday’s showdown between the 49ers and Ravens.

The decision had been rumored for weeks, but still is prompting puzzled responses from league insiders and even Boger’s fellow referees because of his inexperience and reports of poor performance during the 2012 regular season.

Not only is Boger getting a coveted Super Bowl assignment despite never having officiated a conference championship game, but he also has fewer career playoff games under his belt — just four, all in the division round — than any member of the crew who will work the Superdome this weekend.

Sources told The Post yesterday veteran officials suspect the odd choice of Boger and the exclusion from the playoffs altogether of Ed Hochuli and several other referees who were prominent in this season’s ugly lockout stems from lingering bad blood over that dispute from some owners.

Super Bowl line judge Byron Boston, in fact, has been an NFL referee for 18 years — twice as long as Boger — and his 16 career playoff assignments are four times more than the crew chief’s total.

A website devoted to officiating, footballzebras.com, also reported last week two anonymous NFL referees said Boger had a whopping eight calls overturned upon review by the league office during the most recent regular season.

Two or three overturned calls per season for an NFL referee is roughly the average, according to sources, and eight is considered more than enough to eliminate an official from consideration for the playoffs altogether.

But the site reported Boger appealed, and all eight downgrades were subsequently reversed, a claim that has been disputed. The reversals enabled Boger to have a clean slate, paving the way for his surprise Super Bowl assignment.

The site also reported experience in at least one conference title game had been a prerequisite for getting the lead referee assignment in a Super Bowl — another apparent disqualifier for Boger.

But a league spokesman disputed that by saying the only requirements since 2007 have been at least five years of NFL experience and either one conference championship assignment or a playoff assignment in the first two rounds in three of the previous five seasons.

The NFL appeared to acknowledge the criticism yesterday by releasing a statement from the head of the NFL Referees Association praising the choice of Boger.

“The Super Bowl XLVII crew, led by referee and crew chief Jerome Boger, all had an excellent 2012 season,” NFLRA chief Tim Millis said in the statement.

Millis did not respond yesterday to phone and email messages from The Post seeking further comment.

bhubbuch@nypost.com