13. Roughing The Passer
The 2018 AFC Championship game was a thrilling affair that came down to the wire in overtime. The New England Patriots outlasted the Kansas City Chiefs and went on to win their sixth Super Bowl. However, it was still marred by several questionable calls. A phantom roughing the passer call on Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones allowed Tom Brady and the Pats to keep their drive alive when it was essentially stalled.
15 yard penalty on the Chiefs for "roughing" the passer pic.twitter.com/taeqNFSLcV
— Computer Cowboy (@benbbaldwin) January 21, 2019
The inevitable replays showed that Jones hardly grazed Brady’s helmet as he attempted to interrupt the superstar’s throwing motion. It was an example of good and aggressive defense for the most part. Fans cried that this impacted who went to the Super Bowl last year. Of course, many also cried the referees were biased towards New England. But that would never be true, right?