Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields one over a few NFL fans in the “rigged” crowd with comments he made about a game that the league even thought wasn’t called correctly during a recent appearance on the 33rd Team’s “St. Browns Bros” podcast.
Justin Fields has plenty of feelings about the Pittsburgh Steelers
Fields brought up the Bears 2021 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers his rookie year. The Steelers won the Monday Night Football game 29-27. Fields seems to have a lot of favorable memories about that game. He said the Steelers have the best NFL stadium outside of Chicago. However, he did have some unfavorable recollections.
Fields said the officials cheated for the Steelers:
“I’m not gonna get fined, I shouldn’t get fined here, right? Alright, I gotta say it. The refs, they cheated,” Fields said.
“They cheated us out of that game. I’m not gonna lie…There’s a flag where if you go back and look it up, bro, there’s a flag at the end of the game. We just get a big play. It’s fourth down; we got a linebacker run off the field. The ref looks back and bumps into him. I seen that flag, bro. I’m like, come on. I was sick.”
The NFL knew they hurt the Chicago Bears
Per a 2021 article from The Big Lead, the NFL Network reported the league privately knew the poor officiating in Pittsburgh hurt the Bears:
But privately, members of the NFL’s officiating department who reviewed the game acknowledged that referee Tony Corrente and his crew erred on at least three separate critical calls and non-calls that went against Chicago in that 29-27 loss — including a low block penalty on the Bears that nullified a Justin Fields touchdown pass, sources familiar with the league’s thinking said.
Officials also missed multiple penalties by the Steelers, including a late hit on Fields that would’ve given the Bears first-and-goal on the same third-quarter drive and offsides by multiple Steelers on Cairo Santos’ 65-yard field goal attempt that fell short as time expired.
The Bears were called for 12 penalties for 115 yards in the loss. The Steelers were flagged five times for 30 yards.
NFL fans pointed to some of the plays in that game as evidence the league is “rigged” for specific teams. The win was crucial for the Steelers because it kept them in the playoff hunt.
The NFL is rigged. pic.twitter.com/AR0yJkHgtN
— Kev (@A13Kev) February 22, 2024
And many fans felt it was at the time.
This game is rigged. Steelers bears all over again
— Chum (@mr_sett) November 19, 2021
Officiating needs to improve
Hopefully, officiating will improve for the 2024 season. Fans are tired of ridiculous calls being made weekly, especially in the legal sports betting era. There is no reason why the NFL can’t update its systems and technology for officials. It’s hard to think the NFL isn’t holding the officials back when they stubbornly keep a chains crew working on the sideline in the middle of the 2020 decade.
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