The NFL has a problem. Specifically, it is a credibility problem. Sunday on the biggest stage of the sports year, in a game watched worldwide the NFL dropped the ball. Just a couple weeks removed from one of the most suspiciously officiated games the league has seen in years, where the Kansas City Chiefs were actually allowed a fifth down, and numerous controversial calls against the Cincinnati Bengals helped lead the Chiefs to the Super Bowl, the zebras once again dropped an extremely dubious hanky at the most inopportune moment that ultimately all but ended what had been a fantastic game in favor of Kansas City. Couple that with the field conditions at State Farm Stadium and you have to wonder what the NFL is doing, and how they will fix it going forward. Check this out.
“The field was kind of terrible,” Kansas City defensive lineman Frank Clark said. “We’ve had this problem in Arizona before. A lot of these stadiums try to do new tactics with the grass, they try to do new things. I’ve been playing football since I was 7. The best grass is grass that is naturally there.
“It was just slick. You couldn’t anchor. You had to get your whole foot in the ground. If you try and use just your toe, you’d slip right away. You saw the receivers — it was like a water park out there. And we’re playing on grass.”
Roger Goodell: “When you look at officiating, I don’t think it’s ever been better.”
Just a couple of days ago.pic.twitter.com/VqzusrMEmg
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) February 13, 2023
It is inexcusable to put two teams of world class athletes on a wet, slick field in the biggest game of the year. The league had two years to prepare for this game in Arizona, yet some high school stadiums have better surfaces. Strength and speed are two of the major components of the NFL, and wet, sloppy field conditions work to blunt both, as well as make the field very dangerous. It would have been understandable had this been a game played in weather, but it wasn’t and there was no excuse for chewed up, wet sod. Both teams had to play in the mess, so there wasn’t really a distinct advantage given to either, unlike the curious final drive penalty that won it for the Chiefs.
Chiefs were gifted 2 playoff games in a row! Entire officiating crew needs to be OVERHAULED, players put EVERYTHING into this & these guys just make bad call after bad call! Disappointing is an understatement
— T.J. Houshmandzadeh (@housh84) February 13, 2023
With under wo minutes left and a tie game, Kansas City was driving toward a go ahead score. After Pat Mahomes overthrew his receiver on third down it seemed as though Philadelphia would get a chance to get the ball back with timeouts left to mount a game winning drive. Instead, a penalty flag was dropped for a hold on wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and the Chiefs got a free first down and proceeded to kneel out the game and kick a game winning field goal. The contact on the play was minimal and happens on literally almost every pass play. It is also almost never called, otherwise every pass play would end in a penalty. Since it is basically a judgement call by the official, what caused it to be dropped in that moment, basically hijacking the game and gifting the Chiefs a win? It should be recalled that an almost exact same scenario happened during last year’s Super Bowl featuring the Rams and Bengals, aiding the home team Rams. Needless to say, social media burned down as fans, media types and players expressed their disbelief.
Feel awful for Eagles fans. Also officiating won’t get better when the worst commissioner in sports thinks it’s going great.
— Lindsay Patterson (@LndsPatterson) February 13, 2023
Small wonder “NFL Rigged” trended on Twitter and the script narrative gained traction in the two weeks since the AFC Championship game. The league is going to have to get serious about the state of their officiating moving forward, or suspicion and conspiracy theories aren’t going to stop. The league may not care, but at some point, the fans are going to tune out.
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