NFL Fans Stunned at String of Referee Blunders That Benefited Taylor Swift's New Favorite Team
The Kansas City Chiefs beat the New York Jets 23-20 on “Sunday Night Football,” and there were a number of storylines to emerge from the game:
Are the Chiefs title contenders? (Probably.) Is Taylor Swift still a Chiefs fan? (Apparently.) Are the Jets toast? (Most likely.) Is beleaguered Jets quarterback Zach Wilson finally finding his footing as a star? (It sure seems so.)
But much to the NFL’s chagrin, the most prominent storyline anybody wanted to talk about after the game had to do with referee incompetence.
Specifically, referee incompetence that curiously favored Swift’s new favorite NFL team, the Chiefs. (Swift and Chiefs superstar Travis Kelce are reportedly an item.)
The Jets, despite playing at home in MetLife Stadium, were sizable underdogs to the Chiefs, primarily because Wilson, who started the year as the backup quarterback, had to suit up due to the season-ending injury sustained by starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers in Week 1.
And yet! As the old football adage goes, “Any given Sunday.” As in, anybody can beat anybody on any given Sunday.
The Jets fought valiantly despite falling behind a quick 17 points in the opening frame of the game. They ultimately came up short by a mere field goal.
And had a critical call here and there not been missed during the course of the game, the Jets could be crowing about one of the bigger upsets of this early NFL season, instead of ruminating on what could’ve been.
Early in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game, the Chiefs were marching down the football field when the drive ultimately stalled out. At the end of that drive (which would eventually yield the critical three points that the Chiefs would win this game by), Kansas City superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes appeared to get away with an intentional grounding (wherein the quarterback doesn’t leave the pocket and throws the ball to nobody to avoid a sack):
Refs let Mahomes get away with intentional grounding here. #KCvsNYJ pic.twitter.com/dpPxl4unw9
— Rate the Refs App (@Rate_the_Refs) October 2, 2023
The second call of particular note came on a critical third-and-22 conversion by the Chiefs in the fourth quarter.
Ironically enough, the team, via bragging about Mahomes’ stellar scramble, provided the most crystal clear picture of this missed penalty.
See if you can spot it for yourself below:
QB1 GETS THE BIG FIRST DOWN 😤 pic.twitter.com/y4ImjhGU0v
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) October 2, 2023
In case you can’t spot it, at the bottom of the screen, Chiefs offensive tackle Donovan Smith (No. 79) could be seen brazenly and blatantly holding Jets linebacker Jermaine Johnson (No. 11) for full seconds before Mahomes took off for the critical first down conversion.
A holding penalty would’ve put the Chiefs in a third-and-32 situation. In an added bit of insult to injury, the refs did call a penalty on that play — but against the Jets.
A third, and much more controversial play, happened on that same drive in another third-and-a mile situation.
This one was bad enough where even NBC announcer Cris Collinsworth, typically a very pro-NFL guy, called out the egregiousness of it.
“Um. We’ve seen a lot of contact downfield tonight. We have seen a very physical approach out of the New York Jets. And we’ve seen a lot more than THAT, that wasn’t called.”- Cris Collinsworth on the Jets being called for defensive holding on the Chiefs’ 3rd-and-20 #SNF pic.twitter.com/K5gerpQmRb
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 2, 2023
On this play, Mahomes heaved a deep ball to try and convert a third-and-20, and the pass was intercepted by cornerback Michael Carter II — only it wasn’t because of a defensive holding penalty that was called against, cruelly and incorrectly, Jermaine Johnson — the same player that was being held in the first referee blunder.
The actual penalizing play appeared to have been committed by Jets superstar Sauce Gardner (who wears the No. 1).
As the cameras focused on a vividly livid Robert Saleh, the Jets head coach, Collinsworth went on to explain that, while the referees made the correct call by the letter of the law (Gardner did appear to be holding) that was not the standard of expectation established by the referees throughout the game.
“We’ve seen a lot of contact [being allowed by referees] downfield tonight,” Collinsworth said. “We have seen a very physical approach out of the New York Jets. And we’ve seen a lot more than that, that wasn’t called.”
Ask any professional athlete, and they would tell you bad calls don’t infuriate them — inconsistent ones do.
And it certainly doesn’t help the league’s that these calls favored the football team that was being rooted for by one of the world’s most famous and popular musicians. Many NFL fans on social media have posited the conspiracy theory that the NFL wants the Chiefs to succeed so as to continue curry favor (and screen time) with Swift.
Social media is currently inundated with memes like these (a jersey swap is something done post-game between players who like or respect each other):
Patrick Mahomes jersey swap after SNF game pic.twitter.com/gnRkrXG0Rs
— NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) October 2, 2023
Recall, this is hardly the first time (this season alone) that the notion of referees favoring the Chiefs has percolated among NFL fans.
Due to that, referees will likely be under a microscope when the Chiefs travel to face the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
The Jets, meanwhile, will likely carry quite a bit of frustration over when they travel to Denver to face Russell Wilson and the Broncos on Sunday.
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