Getty Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
The NFL fielded heavy criticism from viewers of the Kansas City Chiefs Week 10 home win against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The criticism stemmed from two hits made by Jaguars safety Andre Cisco on Chiefs receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
The first hit from Cisco knocked Smith-Schuster (concussion protocol) out of the game roughly halfway through the second quarter. The hit went unflagged — a flag was thrown during the play and then picked up — despite what appeared to be helmet-to-helmet contact.
#Chiefs WR JuJu Smith-Schuster knocked out of the game due to a scary hit by a #Jaguars defender. Hope he’s okay. #ChiefsKingdom
The following offensive drive for Kansas City is when Cisco administered a hit on 3rd-and-1 on a deep pass down the right sideline to Valdes-Scantling. That hit also went unflagged despite it being on a defenseless receiver.
No flags on either of these Andre Cisco hits against Juju and MVS. After all the personal fouls this year, how are neither of these targeting or helmet-to-helmet? #NFL #ChiefsKingdom #Chiefs #Juju #refs
Chiefs players were discontent with the hit and no flag on the play that injured JuJu. MVS was one of the players that shared his thoughts with reporters after the game. He took to social media to sound off on the matter as well.
MVS Blasts NFL for No-Calls in KC-JAX Game
Valdes Scantling quote tweeted a video that had clips of the hits on Smith-Schuster and Valdes-Scantling in the Jaguars game with the message, “Maybe I don’t understand the rules of targeting, helmet to helmet, or unnecessary roughness. Y’all protecting us?”
Twitter users flooded the comments section of MVS’s tweet.
“Absolutely pathetic. At the very least the juju hit was almost ejection worth,” one Twitter user wrote. “Unbelievable how fast they picked up the flag. And pretty ridiculous how they don’t even go check on him first, they huddle up and immediately pick up the flag without even checking on him.”
@MVS__11 Absolutely pathetic. At the very least the juju hit was almost ejection worth. Unbelievable how fast they picked up the flag. And pretty ridiculous how they don’t even go check on him first, they huddle up and immediately pick up the flag without even checking on him
“Instead of the NFLPA consistently trying to decrease the number of workouts and practices, this is the kind of stuff the membership should be pressing leadership to correct,” another user wrote. “This is the true safety issue and not team sanctioned practices.”
@MVS__11 Instead of the NFLPA consistently trying to decrease the number of workouts and practices, this is the kind of stuff the membership should be pressing leadership to correct.
This is the true safety issue and not team sanctioned practices.
“Like usual the NFL will probably pass out fines but then do nothing to hold officials accountable on the field. It’s more about money than safety sadly,” another user wrote.
“Absolutely horrendous no calls MVS. We see. #ChiefsKingdom is keeping receipts. Send JuJu all of our wishes for a speedy recovery and hope that they’re are no long term effects,” another user wrote.
@MVS__11 Absolutely horrendous no calls MVS. We see.
#ChiefsKingdom is keeping receipts. Send JuJu all of our wishes for a speedy recovery and hope that they’re are no long term effects. 🙏
Big Red Discusses Controversial Hits
Speaking to the media after the game, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid issued his thoughts on the play that knocked JuJu out of the Week 10 outing.
“Well as long as there’s contact to the head, it doesn’t need to be in the game,” Reid said on November 13. “It looked like there was contact to the head from where I was standing, but I’m not the one making that call.”
Reid also explained what the officials told him regarding why they threw a flag during the play and then opted to pick it up.
“Yeah, they said that he hit with his shoulder and so that’s why they picked it up,” Reid said. “You hit somebody in the head, you’re hitting in the head, but they said it was shoulder‐to‐shoulder is what they said. And he obviously was in (a) pretty bad position there for any shoulder‐to‐shoulder (contact).”