A huge topic of conversation Sunday night as the NFL’s games wound down was the offside penalty called on Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Kadarius Toney that nullified a wild go-ahead touchdown with 1:12 remaining against the Buffalo Bills.
If you’re just learning about it, here’s what happened: With 1:25 remaining, the Chiefs trailed 20-17 and had 49 yards to go for a touchdown.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes took the snap from the shotgun and sent a throw toward wide open tight end Travis Kelce, who got a few yards after the catch before doing something unexpected.
Kelce threw the ball about five yards backward toward a wide open Toney, who caught it and scampered about 25 yards into the end zone without being touched.
It was an incredible play, until it wasn’t.
Officials had thrown a flag, and it ended up being an offside infraction on Toney, who had lined up in front of the ball before the snap.
There was a whole lot of debate Sunday on social media about the call, but one person who made their thoughts on it be known was Kansas City head coach Andy Reid.
Usually mild-mannered, it was clear that Reid was very agitated during his postgame press conference, which lasted less than three minutes, with him responding “Next question” multiple times to reporters.
He did address the penalty, however, saying, “It was a heck of a football game down to the end. Very disappointed that it ended the way it did. I never use any of this as excuses, but normally I get a warning before something like that happens in a big game. A bit embarrassing for the National Football League for that to take place.”
Asked to clarify whether or not he thought Toney was offside, Reid reiterated that he usually gets a warning from an official “if it’s even close...I didn’t have a protractor out there, but it’s a bit embarrassing.”
Asked how rare a call like that is, Reid said, “I’ve been in the league a long time, and I haven’t had one like that, at least for that kind of a position there that it’s not given a heads-up to.”
Gene Steratore, who was an official in the NFL from 2003-2018 and is now a rules analyst for CBS (the Chiefs-Bills game was on that network), offered a different perspective in a social media post Sunday evening.
“When officiating the line of scrimmage, general philosophy is not to be overly technical and split hairs over very minor infractions (such as a receiver’s hand slightly breaking the LOS),” he wrote.
“However, when an infraction is so egregious and obvious, a flag has to be thrown. Kadarius Toney is blatantly lined up offside and in the neutral zone. You rarely see an offsides penalty on the offense, but that is not because this play in #BUFvsKC isn’t a foul. It is because a receiver rarely lines up offsides.”