On Monday, Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid changed his tune on the controversial offsides penalty that nixed a Kadarius Toney touchdown late in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Buffalo Bills.
Toney was flagged for being offsides on the play. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Reid were visibly frustrated by the call on the field and voiced their frustrations with the penalty after the game. Reid said after the game the call by the officiating crew was “embarrassing” for the NFL because, typically, crews give the head coach a warning a player is offsides.
However, Reid had to walk back those comments after reviewing the tape of the play. Toney never checked with the judge on the field to see if he was lined up correctly. Reid said Toney needed to take all of the correct steps when lining up to make sure the officials didn’t need to make a judgment call:
“Normally, he looks over to the sideline and just gets an okay,” Reid said. “On that one, he just happened not to. That’s the coaching point. Just make sure you check with the guy on the side just to see if you’re aligned. I mean, he’s not lining up offsides on purpose. Listen, he was two inches or an inch from being legal. Like I said, you can argue both sides of it.”
Fans react to Andy Reid flipping to criticize Toney
Reid did the right thing Monday afternoon by walking back his earlier criticism of the officials. Toney must do his job correctly and check with the judge to see if he’s lined up correctly.
However, the officials didn’t need to make the game about them. The real problem in all of this is that the point needs to be made that players on the field need to decide these games.
The officials shouldn’t have taken away a touchdown on a play where the offside’s mark didn’t affect the play, especially given that the crew chose not to flag Bills defender Von Miller for being offside two players later.
Chiefs and NFL fans reacted to Reid changing his criticism to Toney Monday afternoon. Here are the best takes on X of Reid acknowledging it was his wide receiver’s mistake.
Taylor Swift curse is real
— Aaron (@Coach_Them_Up) December 11, 2023
What’s embarrassing is Andy Reid complaining about the refs not warning him in advance about a penalty that the refs got 💯 correct.
Refs didn’t warn the HC for other 11 times they called it this year either
Making a big deal about non-preferential treatment is tone deaf
— Kirsten Tanis (@kct2020) December 11, 2023
All the Chiefs fault for assembling a WR room that resembles a Division III high school team.
— Kyle Lindemann (@LuckIsMadeFF) December 11, 2023
— Elvis JR💙 (@ElpatronSFC) December 11, 2023
And then there’s this @RapSheet pic.twitter.com/2BsCGlXNWg
— Texas Chief (T.C.) ❤️💛 🏆🏆🏆🏆 (@AustinTxChief) December 11, 2023
You know, when the Chiefs were up and running, I was a fan. I was tired of the Patriots dynasty, my Browns sucked, and I liked the way the Chiefs played. But this prima donna stuff from Mahomes is eyerolling. They have gotten the benefits of calls for years and they know it.
— Gary Blackburn ☮️ BLM 🏳️🌈 (@Paliasterminus) December 11, 2023
Live from the Chiefs locker room: pic.twitter.com/cHkyTvYVOY
— Singin' Wolf (@mjc1217) December 11, 2023
Everyone knows the refs are an issue yet we treat them with kid gloves and can't talk about it? If a co-workers incompetence in any other profession results in loss of livelihood it's going to be discussed and the one experiencing the loss is encouraged to do so. Refs are soft.…
— tim hughes (@seussmaster) December 11, 2023
Regardless of this specific instance, it is absolutely clear that the NFL has the worst officiating of all major sports. Period, not debatable.
— Thechek182 (@thechek182) December 11, 2023
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1 Comment
@thechek182 hasn’t seen too many Premier League games this year, the officiating there is awful. But yeah, NFL is a close second.