Taylor Swift’s boyfriend’s NFL team, AKA the Kansas City Chiefs, lost a tough one Sunday to the Buffalo Bills. The Chiefs had an apparent go-ahead touchdown that was scored late in the fourth quarter get wiped out by an offside call against them.
How could the refs do this to Taylor? And it wasn’t nice for her boyfriend, either.
Let the record show that the bonehead KC wide receiver did line up offside, for no apparent reason. Watching the game on television with my son, I was heard to exclaim, “the idiot in the slot is way offside” or words to that effect.
Usually such exclamations fall on the deaf ears of my wife, who could care less. Yet, having spent most of my 35 years working at newspapers covering sports, I feel moved to make such observations.
When the play seemed to produce a touchdown, I speculated that since it was the Chiefs, the blatant infraction might not get called. Understand, there are those who suspect that the Chiefs get a lot of benefit of the doubt on officiating, and not just because Swift now is their biggest fan.
Just last season, in the AFC title game with Cincinnati, the Chiefs got an extra third down, benefited when they had a key personal foul called on a late hit against their quarterback near game’s end, did not receive a personal foul for a late hit on the Cincinnati quarterback, and got away with a hold or two on key offensive plays.
The Chiefs won by three points, on a last-second field goal.
Predictably, Cincinnati fans were not pleased with how this transpired. They were more than happy to suggest the NFL wanted a KC-Philadelphia Super Bowl, which would pit the KC coach Andy Reid against his former team, Swift’s boyfriend against his brother on Philly who is not Swift’s boyfriend, and feature the ever popular KC quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who seems to lead the league in commercial endorsements.
Benefiting from the second chance to stop KC’s offense Sunday, the soft and cheesy Bills defense did just that– three times. This produced the sort of out-of-control behavior we don’t get from Mahomes on those syrupy insurance commercials.
Screaming, cursing, slamming his helmet, needing to be held back by teammates, Mahomes was incensed at the officials. The cynics rushed to social media to declare that now he knows how Chiefs opponents feel when they can’t get a call while playing the Chiefs.
The most ridiculous take from Mahomes and his coach was that even though it was a penalty, the refs were at fault for not telling the wide receiver he was offside, or shouldn’t be calling penalties on such pretty plays. Understand, about the first thing kids learn while playing peewee football is how to line up correctly in relation to the line of scrimmage.
Also, officials will give alignment help if asked, and mostly to the widest men in the formation. To repeat, the KC bonehead didn’t ask, and was lined up tight in a bunch formation, far from the sideline where an official might have communicated with him. It’s on the wide receiver. Period.
Mahomes whined in his postgame interview that he doesn’t want officiating calls deciding games. But he was not outraged when the officials handed his team a win last year against the Bengals. Just a tad hypocritical, don’t you think?
The rage of Mahomes should be directed at his underachieving wide receivers, who not only line up incorrectly, but also have a habit of dropping passes hitting them in their hands.
Maybe Mahomes should be mad at management for not providing better receivers. Perhaps management should be mad at Mahomes for making so much money they can’t afford to hire competent wide receivers.
But Mahomes raging because officials called an obvious penalty – in a season during which more such calls are being made as an apparent point of emphasis – is ridiculous.
In the words of the great Taylor Smith: Shake it off.
Sam Ross Jr's site 