In addition to those elated - or grumbling, depending on where you live - about the Patriots returning to the Super Bowl, the officiating is the talk of the NFL in the aftermath of Championship Sunday.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid, whose team ended up on the wrong side of a few of those calls, was talking about the officials, too. Particularly the crucial offsides call on Dee Ford that negated what would've been a game-clinching interception for Kansas City with a little more than a minute left and the Patriots trailing by four.
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Reid told reporters on Monday he would've liked a warning first before the flag was thrown.
Here are his comments, via the NFL Network's James Palmer:
As for the overtime rules that saw his MVP-candidate quarterback not get a chance to have the ball in the extra session, Reid said he's been in league meetings where the format's been debated. He supports it but said, “I sure would have liked another crack at it.
“First you have to be a good coin flipper," Reid said," if not, then you got to get a stop."
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Reid also took exception to the roughing-the-passer call against the Chiefs' Chris Jones in the fourth quarter that turned an incompletion on a third-and-7 into a 15-yard penalty and first down on a drive where Tom Brady and the Patriots eventually scored to go up, 24-21.
“I saw our quarterback from play 27 on get hits that were way worse than that that weren’t called,” Reid told Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star.
Here's play 27, in which Trey Flowers' makes contact with his arm near Patrick Mahomes' helmet.
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