Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
Troy Aikman, much like everyone else other than Kansas City Chiefs fans, is getting fed up with all of the terrible and, in some cases, shady calls being made by NFL officials. And he didn’t hold much back in a new interview where he talked about the NFL becoming “more controversial” thanks to the sketchy officiating.
As he has done before, Troy Aikman was pretty vocal on Sunday (as vocal as a “unbiased” broadcaster can be) after the NFL officials gave the Chiefs a first down on a very soft roughing the passer call, followed by a phantom unnecessary roughness call on Patrick Mahomes.
On Thursday, Aikman spoke to Sports Illustrated about the NFL officiating, and he would like to see a change made.
“I know the officials have a tough job,” Aikman said. “I mean, the scrutiny that they’re under. As we’ve gotten more advanced with instant replay, those guys, it seems, have become more and more scrutinized. And the game has not become less controversial, the game has become more controversial. I just think that we are at a point that this has tipped a little bit because the league is partners with a number of these gambling services.
“So here you are promoting gambling. People are gambling more than they ever have before. And those types of calls, there’s a lot at stake regardless, but especially when you’re considering there’s a lot of money that’s changing hands with these calls as well.
“So I think that we owe it to the fans that we get it right, and I think we’re at a point in time where we can. We can get it more right. So that was really my position in just trying to lean on the NFL and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to fix this. We’ve got to address it in the offseason.’
Aikman also addressed situations like Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes baiting defenders and then flopping to draw a penalty.
“If the quarterback has the ball and you’re going to protect him and and give him protections, when he gives himself up he can’t then weaponize that rule and and then dance around and wait till the last possible second,” Aikman said. “Because we’ve also seen it from quarterbacks who get on the sidelines and they’ll tiptoe and a defender doesn’t really know what to do.”
He also added that a quarterback “can’t take advantage of that and either get down or you’re a runner and you’re going to get hit.”
