Referee Pool Report Defends Controversial Call In Chiefs Loss Vs. Bills

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce made a spectacular lateral pass to a wide-open Kadarius Toney, who ran for the go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter of Kansas City’s matchup with the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

The only problem was Toney was lined up with his right foot over the line of scrimmage robbing Kelce of his highlight reel play.

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid described the call as “embarrassing” for the NFL.

Pool reporter Matt Derrick of Chiefs Digest met with NFL senior vice president of officiating Walt Anderson and referee Carl Cheffers after the game to discuss the controversial call.

In the report, Cheffers was asked not only why the flag was thrown and if the referees often warn the coach they have a player lined up offsides.

Here is the transcript of Cheffer’s exchange with Derrick, per the reporter’s post on X, formerly known as Twitter:

Question: Carl, I’ll start with you exclusively since it will be about the offensive offsides call against Kadarius Toney. Can you walk us through what the officiating crew saw and how that play was flagged?

Cheffers: “Yes, sure. It’s one of those things we don’t want to be overly technical on, but when in his alignment he’s lined up over the ball, that’s something that we are going to call as offensive offside. So that’s what the down judge saw. He saw that the alignment was over the ball and that’s what he ruled on the field. That’s what he called.”

Question: Andy Reid just told us that it’s his experience that it is customary for an official to tell the head coach and even sometimes tell the receiver that they need to back up or that they’re lined up offsides. Did that happen in this case? And does that process usually work?

Cheffers: Yes, ultimately, if they look for alignment advice, certainly we are going to give it to them. But ultimately, they are responsible for wherever they line up. And, certainly, no warning is required, especially if they are lined up so far offsides where they’re actually blocking our view of the ball. So, we would give them some sort of warning if it was anywhere close, but this particular one is beyond a warning.”

Question: Just curious, had there been any other warnings issued during the game?

Cheffers: “I don’t know the answer to that question about the alignment of specific receivers or any other warnings.”

Question: Okay, I appreciate that.

Cheffers: “But again, if it’s egregious enough, it would be beyond a warning. So, really regardless of whether or not he was warned at other times during the day, if it was an egregious alignment to where he was over the ball — whether he warnings or not — it would still be a foul.”

Question: And so in this case, it was certainly determined that it was an egregious violation?

Cheffers: “Correct.”

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There was a separate question on the report regarding a pass caught by Bills running back Latavius Murray that was fumbled out of bounds that Anderson explained before Derrick asked one last question regarding Reid’s claim that the offside penalty was embarrassing for the league.

Question: I appreciate that. I ask this last question respectfully, simply because it comes from Andy Reid with him saying that the offsides call, that he found it a bit embarrassing, as far as he wasn’t given a warning of any sort. Do you have any response to Andy’s comment about that?

Anderson: “No, we wouldn’t make any comments about that. And I think you had asked Carl relative to the process of when players might potentially receive warnings and I think Carl answered that adequately.”

With the 20-17 loss, the Chiefs fell to the No. 3 seed in the AFC as they head to Gillette Stadium in Week 15 to take on the 3-10 New England Patriots.