NFL referee is carted off the field in scary scenes

In some scary scenes during Sunday's game between the Carolina Panthers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, an NFL referee had to be carted off the field after a collision with a player. 

NFL umpire Carl Paganelli had to be helped off the field of play after he was ran into by Tampa Bay linebacker Vi Jones.

Jones was attempting to catch a ball being thrown in from the sideline to be spotted when he bumped into Paganelli.

Paganelli immediately went down and appeared to be holding his lower leg.

That led to him being tended to by medical staff before being carted off the field of play.

It did leave the officiating crew down to six men from the normal seven.

Paganelli has been an official in the NFL since 1999 and has umpired nearly 400 games.

That includes 21 games in the playoffs - of which four of those were Super Bowls: Super Bowl XXIX (Patriots over Eagles), Super Bowl XLI (Colts over Bears), Super Bowl XLVI (Giants over Patriots in 2012) and Super Bowl XLVIII (Seahawks over Broncos). 

Paganelli is the only official to work in four different Super Bowls since 2000.

As for the game itself, the testy back-and-forth affair between the two NFC South division rivals went to overtime tied 23-23.

Embattled Carolina quarterback Bryce Young completed 25-of-44 passes for 282 yards and a touchdown on the night. His counterpart, Baker Mayfield, only managed a completion rate of 18-for-30 for 185 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions.

Young managed to score a touchdown to go up three points with 30 seconds to go. Mayfield then drove down the field, setting up a 51-yard field goal for kicker Chase McLaughlin as time expired.

McLaughlin was the hero in overtime as well, knocking through a 30-yard field goal to win the game 26-23. 

Carolina (3-9) next travels to take on the Philadelphia Eagles. Tampa Bay (6-6) will host the Las Vegas Raiders.