Super Bowl LI has been dissected from nearly every angle. In the final days before the game, let us add one more: the role of officiating in determining the eventual champion.

Perhaps the least-discussed aspect of this matchup is the extent to which referee Carl Cheffers and his crew will allow defensive players on both sides to be physical with opposing receivers. It’s an especially pertinent topic given the New England Patriots’ long history of overcoming elite-level offenses in the playoffs, at times using a strategy that was so physical that it prompted the NFL to redouble its efforts to enforce defensive holding and illegal contact penalties in the mid-2000s.

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It stands to reason that the Patriots will have more success against Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan and receiver Julio Jones if their cornerbacks can push the limits of what’s allowable under NFL rules. Will Cheffers and his crew permit it? Let’s make that issue the focus of our final officiating preview of the 2016 season.

As we’ve noted often, penalty frequency can vary dramatically among NFL officiating crews, similar to a strike zone that changes in baseball depending on who the home plate umpire is.

Tracking this tendency, as both the Patriots and Falcons surely have done, is complicated because Cheffers won’t have his usual regular-season crew.

The NFL assigns postseason games to its top-graded officials, regardless of crew assignment. In this case, Cheffers will have only one member of his 2016 crew with him: head linesman Kent Payne. Cheffers himself has little impact on penalty calls in the defensive backfield from his position behind the quarterback, other than setting the tone for the entire crew before the game.

So in this situation, we’ll utilize regular-season data for the crews of each official who will play a role in making such calls.

We’ll refer to “defensive coverage” penalties: the combined total of calls for defensive pass interference, illegal contact and defensive holding. As you’ll see below, most of the officials who’ll have the primary responsibility for those calls in Super Bowl LI — as spelled out on the NFL’s football operations site — hail from crews that call fewer such penalties on average.

Here’s one statistic to keep in mind from the top: Overall, penalties have dropped 29.7 percent in the 2016 playoffs compared to the regular season, from 15.8 per game (including declined/offsetting) to 11.1. Within that drop, however, calls for pass interference, illegal contact and defensive holding have remained steady: about 1.2 per game. It’s quite possible, of course, that the flag total has remained constant even as the level of physicality has increased, which leads to a net result of fewer uncalled fouls.

Referee Carl Cheffers

2016 analysis: For what it’s worth, Cheffers’ regular-season crew called a combined 45 defensive coverage penalties, fifth most in the NFL. As a referee, he is primarily responsible for officiating hits to the quarterback and offensive holding. During the regular season, he called only five roughing-the-passer penalties, and his crew called 46 penalties for offensive holding, fifth fewest in the NFL. He drew criticism from the Kansas City Chiefs, most notably tight end Travis Kelce, for calling a hold on left tackle Eric Fisher to negate a game-tying two-point conversion late in a divisional playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Cheffers also called a questionable face mask penalty against the Detroit Lions in 2015 that put the Green Bay Packers in position to win with a Hail Mary touchdown throw. Former NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira wrote in his book, “After Further Review,” that the penalty was “too technical to call.”

Former New York Giants kicker Josh Brown admitted publicly to domestic violence for the first time during an interview with “Good Morning America,” but he disputed the more than 20 incidents claimed by his now ex-wife, Molly Brown, and said he never hit her.

Brown, 37, wants to return to the NFL. He was cut by the Giants on Oct. 25 after admitting abuse to the team.

“I mean, I had put my hands on her. I kicked the chair. I held her down. The holding down was the worst moment in our marriage,” Brown said during an interview with ABC News’ Paula Faris. “I never hit her. I never slapped her. I never choked her. I never did those types of things.”

Farris asked Brown how people reconcile are supposed to reconcile him abusing but not hitting his ex-wife.

“They’re not supposed to. What I did was wrong. Period,” Brown said. “Domestic violence is not just physical abuse. We’re talking intimidation and threats, the attempt to control, body language. An abuser is going to abuse to a certain degree to acquire some kind of a reaction.”

Brown still seemed to take offense to the notion that he hit his wife.

“The world now thinks I beat my wife,” Brown said. “I have never hit this woman. I never hit her. Not once.”

In October, documents were released related to Brown’s arrest on domestic violence charges in Woodinville, Washington. The letters, emails and journals contained admissions by Brown that he had physically, verbally and emotionally abused his wife.

“These were the things that you say to yourself and then you’d burn them. … And I didn’t,” Brown told GMA. “The fact that my private things are being used against me, that’s hard to swallow. I’m talking about my journals. I had to learn all that and write that down in order to heal and now you’re telling me that I’m going to be punished for trying to correct the things in my life that needed to be changed.”

Brown was coming off his best season of his career in 2015 when he made 94 percent of his kicks. The Giants signed him to a two-year, $4 million deal last April despite knowing he was under investigation for domestic abuse.

Brown was arrested on May 22, 2015 for domestic assault, fourth degree. Charges were never filed.

The NFL ultimately suspended Brown for one game for what he repeatedly called a “moment.” Brown was arrested after he was accused by his ex-wife of grabbing her wrist during an argument the previous year. He said the league has known everything since the start of the investigation and that he’s never tried to hide his problems.

But the arresting officer wrote in his report that Brown told him he tried to grab the phone and grabbed her wrist. Brown provided a different version of the story during his interview with ABC News.

Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald says he will return for his 14th season in the NFL.

Fitzgerald told ESPN’s Jim Trotter on Wednesday that he will play out the final year on his contract with Arizona.

Fitzgerald, who has played his whole career for the Cardinals, had said earlier in the week he had “pretty much made up my mind” but wasn’t ready to announce the decision, which he added wasn’t a tough one to make.

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  Carson Palmer addressed rumors about his future with the Cardinals on Wednesday, denying a report that his Arizona home is for sale.

Though it has been nine years since the Patriots nearly achieved an undefeated season, the team just now has gotten around to trademarking “Perfect Season” and “19-0.”

The Patriots have gone through the process with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and, in December, trademarked the two slogans through their parent company, The Kraft Group, online records show.

It was nine years ago this week that New England’s bid for the first 19-0 season in NFL history ended with a loss to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII.

On Jan. 17, 2008, three days before the Patriots beat the Chargers to go to 18-0 and advance to the Super Bowl, The Kraft Group filed for trademarks in preparation for merchandising the Patriots’ perfect season subject to winning the Super Bowl. The company filed to trademark “Road To Perfection,” “19-0” and “Perfect Season.”

Despite the team’s loss to the Giants, The Kraft Group still went through and trademarked “Road To Perfection” in the “sports and entertainment information” category in November 2012.

More thought was apparently given to the other two trademarks — “Perfect Season” and “19-0” — as The Kraft Group filed for the maximum of five extensions to provide the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office with the necessary documentation over the next eight years.

The one complication with those two filings is that, while thousands of T-shirts were printed commemorating a perfect Patriots season, none of them were ever sold. Emblazoned with an event that didn’t occur, they instead were shipped to other countries.

Having to prove that they deserved the right to the phrase, the Patriots apparently licensed “Perfect Season” to the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, which produced a DVD of the 2015 state football championship game between Xaverian Brothers and Central Catholic high schools. Xaverian prevailed, winning its 24th straight game (spanning two seasons).

The championship games were hosted at Gillette Stadium, home of the Pats.

The Patriots have a deeper connection to Xaverian. Hall of Famer Andre Tippett’s son Cody played on that 2015 team and was presented with the award for the best player in Massachusetts high school football by Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Former Patriots Vince Wilfork and Steve Grogan also sent their sons to Xaverian.