Getty Patrick Mahomes pictured with future wife Brittany Matthews.
Patrick Mahomes fiancée Brittany Matthews has become a very passionate Kansas City Chiefs fan, as you’d expect, and she was fired up toward the end of the team’s Week 17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
As we know, some calls didn’t go Kansas City’s way throughout the game — particularly in the fourth quarter. These penalties directly impacted the result and even head coach Andy Reid noted that he’d “like to comment on each,” before adding that didn’t “want to be fined.”
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Matthews Echoes Chiefs Kingdom
Many fans of Chiefs Kingdom were frustrated after several flags allowed the Bengals to prolong drives and eventually kick a game-winning field goal without Patrick Mahomes ever touching the football. To all those supporters, Matthews was your voice on Sunday, January 2.
The tirade started with a bunch of trash can emojis after Arrowhead Pride tweeted, “Officials are officially bad,” moments before, which Matthews also retweeted.
Then she began to get vocal, quote tweeting Arrowhead Pride this time. “Killing us,” she said with some more emojis after A.P. wrote: “Penalties. So. Many. Penalties.”
Matthews also retweeted “refs on trash” and quote tweeted that officiating was “soft” before kicking things up a notch. “The REFs DO NOT want us to win,” she proclaimed at 4:07 p.m. ET.
The REFs DO NOT want us to win
Adding: “Like do not, let’s make it a little more obvious.”
Like do not, let’s make it a little more obvious
Continuing: “Like how many more times y’all want us to stop them on the [one-yard] line…”
Like how many more times y’all want us to stop them on the 1yd line…
Finally, around the time the final flag came in to set the Bengals up for a game-winning field goal in the final seconds of the fourth quarter, Matthews tweeted: “TOTAL BS.”
TOTAL BS
She finished by voicing: “We just basically got screwed, that’s all.”
We just basically got screwed, that’s all🤷🏼♀️
Mahomes and Reid may get fined for complaining about officiating after the game but Matthews has it in her right to say whatever she wants. This social media firestorm caught a lot of attention after the contest and many around the sport agreed with the complaints.
The NFL has not commented on the situation, and likely won’t, but commissioner Roger Goodell should be taking a look into these decisions. If there was truly no agenda, as Matthews is suggesting, hold the referees accountable for game-changing mistakes.
It happens too often in this sport where the officials decide the end result.
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Judge for Yourself
In case you missed them, here were some of the fourth-quarter flags in question.
Television analyst Tony Romo referred to this as a “soft penalty” on L’Jarius Sneed.
L’Jarius Sneed was called for unnecessary roughness on this tackle. #ChiefsKingdom
Sneed then was called for unnecessary roughness on the same drive. Finally, the Bengals got some help in the end zone on the final drive with two fourth and goal penalties on the Chiefs at the one-yard line. Here was the first on Charvarius Ward (holding, top of the screen).
Ja’Marr Chase helped save the Bengals on the fourth-and-goal by drawing the holding call on Charvarius Ward. Top of the screen here. Don’t think CBS had time for a replay.
Then the second, which ended up going down as illegal use of hands to the face on Sneed.
This allowed Cincinnati to kneel down and walk away with the 34-31 victory after a chip-shot field goal.
At the end of the day, officiating is a part of the game and while the ending to Chiefs-Bengals is unsatisfying and infuriating for fans, you just count your blessings that this didn’t happen during a postseason outing. If that occurs, the Chiefs must demand answers.