NFL Referees Made Two Mind-Numbing Mistakes On Sunday That Have Everyone Thinking The League Is “Rigged”
This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.
The NFL refs failed to correct a pair of critical calls during Sunday’s action, despite the availability of replay assistance.
At this point, football fans are accustomed to the officials making game-changing mistakes at pivotal situations. Even with expanded replay assistance, however, the NFL refs are still making errors that aren’t being corrected with the new replay system.
It got out of control again on Sunday to the point where angry fans accused the refs of “rigging” games, namely the Kansas City Chiefs-Indianapolis Colts contest, after Patrick Mahomes drew a questionable “roughing the passer” penalty.
There was another head-scratching miscue by the NFL refs during the Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles game on Sunday. Ryan Flournoy was penalized for “roughing the kicker” on Braden Mann, even though the replay shows he clearly got a piece of the ball:
Roughing the kicker was called on the Cowboys despite replay appearing to show that Dallas got a hand on the ball. pic.twitter.com/zX1rQ8mhbT
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) November 23, 2025
Though Dallas had the opportunity to challenge the call, NFL vice president of instant replay Mark Butterworth added in the pool report that replay assistance could have overturned the call:
Here is the pool report about the Ryan Flournoy penalty for roughing the punter (that led to a Philly TD drive). Cowboys could have challenged. Officials also didn’t have the clear shot to waive off the penalty on their own in time. @FOX4 https://t.co/LOddDSOp6A pic.twitter.com/VCCTNLAy6n
— Jeff Kolb (@JeffKolbFOX4) November 24, 2025
The Cowboys went on to win 24-21 after trailing 21-0 early, so the blown call at least didn’t affect the outcome of that game.
NFL Refs Blew Another Crucial Call In Buccaneers-Rams Game
In the third quarter of their ‘Sunday Night Football’ clash against the Los Angeles Rams, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were also on the wrong side of a controversial ruling by the NFL officials.
Teddy Bridgewater completed a pass to wide receiver Tez Johnson to set up a 3rd-and-1 situation in Rams territory. LA head coach Sean McVay threw his challenge flag, but head referee Clay Martin announced that replay assistance determined it was an incomplete pass.
For replay assistance to buzz down and say it was clearly not a catch after being called a catch is ridiculous! Ball never touched the ground pic.twitter.com/RgulaOd7nv
— HHS Baseball (@BIG_REDBASEBALL) November 24, 2025
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio outlined the issue with the questionable ruling:
“Watch the play. Is it clear and obvious that the ball hit the ground? If anything, it’s clear and obvious that the ball didn’t hit the ground.
Bucs coach Todd Bowles could have thrown a challenge flag of his own. Why bother? If replay assistance overturned the ruling without a challenge, the replay assistant must have seen something that made it both clear and obvious that the ball hit the ground. It’s an inexcusable error, the kind of thing that makes replay assistance an impediment to the goal of getting calls right.
Having a nameless, faceless entity swoop in and change a good call to a bad call will only fuel suspicion that the fix is in. While the play had no impact on the outcome of the game, the fact that it happened speaks to a flaw that compels the league to explore how and why this happened, and to keep it from happening again.”
The Rams would cruise to a 34-7 win, but the Bucs still have good reason to be upset about how that clear-as-day catch was ruled an incomplete pass.
