There will be a local connection to Super Bowl LVI.  Referee Ron Torbert was named to work the game in Los Angeles next month.

Torbert is a 1981 graduate of Youngstown's South High School and has been an NFL official since 2010. He's been a referee since 2014.

Torbert appeared on WFMJ's Community Connection with Madonna Chism Pinkard in 2019 and talked about growing up on Youngstown's southside.

"I went to all the football games when we were at South, so I always loved the game," Torbert said on the show.  'I was a skinny kid, and I wasn't about to go out and play the get hurt, so I confined my playing to the backyards."

Tolbert was the alternate referee for Super Bowl LIII.