Troy Aikman Goes Off On Refs For Unbelievably Soft Flag On The Houston Texans After Hit On Patrick Mahomes

Aaron Ryan·
CULTURESPORTS
·
Kansas City Chiefs Houston Texans hit Patrick Mahomes
ESPN

If they’re not allowed to touch Patrick Mahomes, just put that in the rules at this point.

NFL referees have taken plenty of criticism in the past for seemingly favoring the Kansas City Chiefs when it comes to throwing (or not throwing) flags. And this playoff game against the Houston Texans isn’t doing anything to help quiet their critics…

During the first quarter of the NFL Divisional Round game at Arrowhead Stadium, Texans defensive end Will Anderson Jr. was called for roughing the passer after delivering the softest possible hit to Patrick Mahomes.

While announcers Troy Aikman and Joe Buck initially agreed with the call, they brought in rules analyst Russell Yurk for the replay, who explained that he didn’t see enough contact to throw the flag:

“Based on what you saw, it looked like he did come up high with the helmet but it looked like that first contact was to the upper chest area. I didn’t see anything there that supported a foul.”

But it didn’t get any better from there – and it sounds like even the broadcasters have had enough of the suspect officiating.

During the third quarter, the Chiefs botched a snap and Mahomes quickly picked up the loose ball and took off running. And while sliding down, two Texans defenders went for the tackle at the same time, colliding with each other as the QB was sliding.

It looked like the defenders took the brunt of the hit, with incidental contact to Mahomes at best. But once again the flag came out, this time for unnecessary roughness on the tackle. And Aikman couldn’t hold back and longer:

“Oh, come on! I mean, he’s a runner. I could not disagree with that one more. And he barely gets hit. That’s the second penalty now that’s been called against the Texans.”

Yurk agreed with Aikman that the penalty was bullshit, and Aikman called on the NFL to address the issue in the offseason:

“They’ve got to address it in the offseason. You can’t as a quarterback run around and play games with defenders and then be able to draw a penalty.”

Aikman further criticized Mahomes a few plays later for trying to draw a foul by slowing down instead of simply running out of bounds with the ball, something the veteran quarterback and announcer said was an understandable source of frustration for defenders:

“He’s trying to draw the penalty. Rather than just run out of bounds, he slows down. And that’s been the frustration and I get it. I understand it. That’s been the frustration for these defensive players around the league.”

The Chiefs (predictably) ended up winning the game 23-14 to advance to the AFC Championship Game next weekend, but they definitely didn’t do anything to silence the allegations that the NFL is biased in their favor.

In fact, it seems like the entire internet was in agreement on this one:

Pretty rare that you see fans of every football team (except the Chiefs of course) in agreement on something, but man, that was rough.

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