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Did Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid Get Fined for Criticizing the Officials?
After a controversial loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 14, the Kansas City Chiefs heavily criticized the officiating. Were Mahomes and Reid fined?
The 2023 NFL season has been plagued by officiating. As a result, outrage has been frequent. Most recently, the Kansas City Chiefs and their players called out NFL officiating after the end of Week 14’s Buffalo Bills vs. Chiefs game.
However, the NFL is known for fining players and coaches who publicly speak out about officiating. Were Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid fined for their criticism?
Were Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid Fined for Criticizing Officiating?
In the final minutes of the Chiefs-Bills game, the Chiefs scored a go-ahead touchdown, but it was called back due to a penalty. Chiefs’ wide receiver Kadarius Toney was lined up offsides, resulting in an uncommon offensive offsides penalty. The Chiefs did not score again, falling to the Bills, 20-17.
The result left many players and coaches upset. “Wildest f—ing call I’ve ever seen,” Mahomes said to Bills quarterback Josh Allen post-game. “Offensive offsides on that play, man. F—ing terrible.”
“Normally, if it’s even close, you get a warning. The head coach gets a warning,” Reid said. “I don’t know. I didn’t have a protractor out there. It’s a bit embarrassing. I’ve been in the league a long time, and I haven’t had one like that. At least for that kind of position there, it’s not given a heads up to.”
Mahomes also had more to say in his post-game press conference. “Obviously, tough to swallow. Not only for me but just for football in general, to take away greatness like that. For a guy like Travis to make a play like that,” Mahomes said
As a result of their actions, the duo both received a major fine. Mahomes was fined $50,000 due to unsportsmanlike conduct for abusive, threatening or insulting language to officials, and publicly criticizing the referees. Reid, on the other hand, was fined $100,000 for publicly criticizing the officials.
Although they made strong comments immediately following the game, the two walked back their comments over the following week. “Do we need to line up right? Yeah, we do. We got to take care of that. We can’t put it in the officials’ hands,” Reid said. Mahomes also shared that he messaged Allen and apologized for his comments.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell explained that the criticism seemed ironic. “I find it a little ironic when you say attention on officiating when I think almost everybody, to my knowledge, is acknowledging that the officials were absolutely correct,” Goodell said.
“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, obviously we would’ve been subject or our officials would’ve been subject to criticism also,” Goodell said.
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