Bill Vinovich may be refereeing the Super Bowl this weekend but his former colleagues in the Canadian Football League still call him "the chipmunk."

The California native will officiate Sunday's NFL championship between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks in front of a worldwide television audience in the hundreds of millions but got his start in professional football during the CFL's ill-fated American expansion in the mid-'90s.

It's also where he got his nickname.

"His cheeks have a little bulge to them, like he's got some food stuffed in there or something," laughed Hamilton native and long-time CFL official Al McColman, who worked games with Vinovich. "He'll probably kill me for saying that."

Vinovich was one of close to a dozen American officials hired by the league when the CFL added U.S.-based franchises starting in 1993. They were trained in the many rule differences — of which three downs versus four is just the most obvious — then mixed with experienced Canadian colleagues and sent to do games on both sides of the border.

Glen Johnson is now the CFL's vice president of officiating but was working as a field judge when Vinovich came into the league. He says that while some of the new American officials struggled with the speed and nuances of the Canadian game, Vinovich caught on quickly.

"He had to learn a whole different set of rules and go out and be professional and he took that very seriously," Johnson said. "He had an eye on the NFL back then and was a guy that within five minutes of meeting him, you knew he had the 'it' factor."

Johnson says that while some of the new officials didn't take the CFL as seriously as they should have — like manyAmerican players, they had little understanding of how good the football was — Vinovich realized quickly that the league could play a key role in his development. He used it as a springboard to the NFL, which took him on in 2001.

"The CFL was a great experience because it was professional football. It required immediate accountability and provided me with strict scrutiny," Vinovich wrote in an email to The Spectator. "There were weekly training videos and we were graded on every play of every game. The endurance of a 20-game season was a challenge I very much enjoyed."

A long season is hardly the only obstacle Vinovich has overcome on his road to the Super Bowl. In April 2007, he was diagnosed with a aortic dissection — a tear in the large artery that carries blood from the heart down through the chest — and was given a two per cent chance of surviving the next 48 hours.

He made it but was pulled from on-field duty by the NFL. It took him five years and a number of medical procedures but he finally got back to calling games and is now considered to be among the best referees in the game. He's worked six playoff games during his career and was the backup referee in 2013 but this Sunday will be his first Super Bowl.

"Just a long fight back." Vinovich told an American website this week. "It was just one of those… I can't even explain it."

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Johnson is still in touch with Vinovich, who continued to work games in the CFL for a couple of seasons after the league's American experiment came to an end in 1995. He says Vinovich enjoys universal respect on both sides of the border.

"Given all he's been through, it's great to see him get an opportunity like the Super Bowl," Johnson said. "We're really proud of him. He's a really super guy."