The Kansas City Chiefs – Buffalo Bills should have been a spectacle for a number of reasons: the meeting of two of this generation’s top quarterbacks, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes, who have turned this game into what will perhaps become the modern-era Brady-Manning; two teams trying desperately to rescue their seasons, having both been unexpectedly derailed in the past couple of months.
Rather, it has ended up turning into what feels like an eon-spanning debate about the nature of officiating and whether Kadarius Toney was (he was) and should have been called offside in the dying moments of the game. Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes and opposition quarterback, Josh Allen, have all had their say on the matter, along with seemingly every member of the media.
Now, unsurprisingly, more people are putting in their two cents. Roger Goodell, infamous, although highly effective, commissioner of the National Football League had this to say about the matter – per Ian Rapoport.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell weighs in on the KC-BUF offsides call: “There was no question about that foul. … It was absolutely the correct call.”
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 13, 2023
Roger Goodell Stands By Call Against The Kansas City Chiefs
Whilst Goodell is not exactly setting the world on fire in his comments – it was clearly offside – and the main debate concerns other receivers who were not called offside, and whether the offside really impacted the play, rather than the nature of the legitimacy of the officiating call.
However, it is more telling that Roger Goodell chose to speak out in favor of the officiating crew. One clear reason may be the irregular amount of criticism that NFL referees have faced over the past few weeks. Another is concerning the importance of speaking up in defense the practices and organization of the league that he heads.
NBC Sports reports further comments that Goodell made in response to public debate about the penalty.
“Well, I find it a little ironic when you say ‘tension on officiating,’ when I think almost everybody, to my knowledge, is acknowledging the officials were absolutely correct,” Goodell said Wednesday at the NFL owners meetings in Irving, Texas. “That’s their job — to call when there’s a foul. There was no question about that foul. It was absolutely the right call. If you don’t call that, obviously we would have been subject, our officials would have been subject to criticism also.”
Roger Goodell is correct, and (I can’t believe I am actually defending him here), he actually makes a really good point about if the call had not been made. Someone – or perhaps many people, would have complained that Toney was offsides, and the officiating crew internet circus would have blown up once more.
So it does seem that referees will, at this point, seemingly get blasted for any major call, regardless of whether it is right or wrong, especially when the Chiefs made such a public song and dance about it.
I guess the moral of the story is, be nice to the officials, its a tough job, and also, I guess there are very select occasions where Roger Goodell is right after all.
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