It was announced today that Alex Kemp will be the head referee for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week 3 matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Kemp worked the Cincinnati Bengals-Kansas City Chiefs matchup in Week 2 and the Minnesota Vikings-New York Giants matchup in Week 1. His crew threw 18 flags in Week 1 and 12 in Week 2, and his crew called defensive pass interference twice in both games. They’ve most frequently called offensive holding, calling it nine times throughout the first two weeks thus far.
Kemp began his NFL officiating career as a field judge in 2014 before working as a side judge from 2015-2017. He became a referee in 2018 and most recently worked a Steelers game in Week 1 of 2023, working the Steelers blowout loss against the San Francisco 49ers.
Last year, his crew called 46 false start penalties and 28 offensive holding penalties, the two most frequently called penalties, with him as the referee. Pittsburgh has been flagged for the second-most penalties in the league so far, and with Kemp’s crew calling a lot of penalties through two weeks this season, it’s something that the group will need to clean up.
The Steelers are at home this week, and Kemp has called 13 penalties on the home team versus 15 on the away team. In Week 1, most of the flags came against the New York Giants, who were the home team, with them being penalized nine times compared to just seven for the visiting Minnesota Vikings. However, in Week 2, Kemp called four flags against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium while calling eight against the visiting Cincinnati Bengals.
Pittsburgh has to clean up its penalty problems this season, and the team is taking action by bringing in officials for all three of its practices this week. Hopefully, that will reduce penalties, and the Steelers can play some cleaner football in their home opener against the Chargers.
