Roger Goodell defends penalty call on Chiefs that angered Patrick Mahomes: ‘I find it ironic’

IRVING, Texas — Hours after Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes completed his apology tour for his Sunday outburst, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the officiating call that fired up one of the league’s biggest stars.

A Chiefs touchdown in the final two minutes was nullified due to a pre-snap penalty.

Receiver Kadarius Toney, video of the call shows, was offsides in the costly play of a 20-17 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

Mahomes and Chiefs head coach Andy Reid initially took issue with the officials penalizing Toney for a flag about which he received no pre-snap warning. NFL policy doesn’t require officials to warn players about pre-snap violations, though some officials do ascribe to philosophies of “preventative” officiating to let players know.

Goodell supported the decision to call Toney offsides, even during the final two minutes of a game on a play that could have flipped the contest result.

Roger Goodell on Chiefs WR Kadarius Toney offsides penalty: “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.”pic.twitter.com/edfjBHMLye

— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) December 13, 2023

“I think almost everybody, [to] my knowledge, is acknowledging the officials were absolutely correct,” Goodell said Wednesday in his news conference at the league’s winter meeting. “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, [then] our officials would have been subject to criticism also.”

In a postgame pool report from Kansas City, referee Carl Cheffers said officials “don’t want to be overly technical” on offensive offsides calls but the down judge saw Toney’s “alignment was over the ball,” which constitutes a foul.

Story continues

Cheffers acknowledged that had Toney asked whether he was offsides, the…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2023-12-14 01:50:41

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