Troy Aikman Called Out Patrick Mahomes And NFL Refs During ABC’s Broadcast, And Most Fans Couldn’t Get Enough

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Each network has an official reviewer they bring in to discuss any disputed calls. More often than not, the reviewer either openly supports the referees or, if the officials made a clear error, makes excuses for their decision, citing complicated angles or a split-second call. That didn't happen during the Chiefs-Texans Divisional Playoff Game yesterday.

In addition to recently winning two Super Bowls and three out of the last five, the Kansas City Chiefs have also gained a reputation with NFL fans for getting favorable calls from the refs. This happened again during their game against the Texans when the Chiefs and quarterback Patrick Mahomes benefited from two unclear roughing the passer calls. The first one occurred on a crucial third down play when Mahomes was supposed to be penalized for hitting a player, but replays showed he didn't hit them in the helmet.

Audibly exclaimed, "Oh come on!" as the referee called the play, and he then became even more aggressive as he replayed it.

Come on! He's a runner, and I don't agree with the call at all. He's incredibly elusive and rarely gets hit. That's the second time this season he's been called for a penalty, and they need to address this issue over the offseason. As the quarterback, you can't just run around and use defenders as a distraction to draw a penalty.

ESPN's rules expert, Russell Yurk, who previously oversaw officiating for the NFL as its Vice President, explicitly stated on the broadcast that the call shouldn't have been made. Joe Buck also chimes in, referring to the penalty as a "late slide" and describing the official who called it as being "behind the play", which is a polite way of saying he had a poor view of the action.

Later in the game, there was also a third play in which Mahomes seemed to slow down just long enough before going out of bounds. This allowed the defender to catch up and shove him out of bounds. When Mahomes went to the ground, he wildly flailed his arms in the air as if he had been blindsided. Although no flag was thrown to penalize him, former NFL player Aikman didn't hold back with his thoughts.

He's intentionally trying to slide into a penalty situation. You can see that instead of running out of bounds, he's slowing down. That's been the source of frustration, and I understand why. That's been a source of frustration for defensive players across the league.

Right now, if you don't regularly watch NFL broadcasts, you might be a bit mixed up. Buck, Aikman, or Yurk weren't overly harsh with their comments in that one instance, but compared to the norm, this was unusually intense. We've watched numerous NFL games where the referees made obvious mistakes, and all we get from the broadcast is something like, "it was a split-second play." Sometimes, the rules officials even come on and tell us what really happened, acting as if they made a perfect call in the process.

To the announcers for being so straightforward, and his tweet has received over 50,000 likes. Check it out…

Kudos to Aikman and Buck for speaking their minds and calling out questionable referee calls on live national TV when they're bad. We might need to normalize this kind of honest feedback to get the referees to improve slowly. Jan 19, 2025

Received more than 7,500 likes.

Think the Swift train of popularity is fueled by media attention.

Football fans aren't stupid, we watch multiple games week after week. We know the rules and how they should be applied. So, if the officials make a blatant mistake, the announcers should point it out. Aikman and Buck do, which is why I agree with many fans that they're the top announcers.