Did Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers have sour grapes while watching Super Bowl LV?
Rodgers “liked” a tweet from veteran referee Terry McAulay chastising the officiating crew in the Super Bowl showdown between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs.
McAulay intimated a pair of defensive holding penalties against the Chiefs were not close to the same “standard” of contact for that call throughout the year. He also made reference to the NFC Championship Game between the Buccaneers and Packers:
“Neither defensive hold called on KC comes close to the standard we saw the entire season for that call all season and certainly not what we saw in TB/GB,” McAulay tweeted Sunday evening.
Penalties played a vital role early in Sunday's Super Bowl between the Chiefs and Buccaneers, though they had little to do with the eventual outcome given the nature of the contest.
Still, penalties against Charvarius Ward, Bashaud Breeland and Tyrann Mathieu in the second quarter were enormous calls during two Tampa Bay touchdown drives. First, with the Buccaneers leading 7-3, a defensive holding call on Ward negated a Mathieu interception of Tom Brady. An offsides on a field goal attempt then helped set up a Rob Gronkowski touchdown to make it 14-3.
The next possession, Breeland was whistled for defensive pass interference after appearing to merely get his feet tangled up with Buccaneers receiver Mike Evans. Mathieu drew a flag on another pass intended for Evans in the end zone, though it appeared to be an uncatchable ball. Tampa Bay promptly took advantage to make it a 21-6 game at halftime before cruising to a 31-9 Super Bowl win.
It seems more likely Rodgers was venting frustrations at the apparent failure to uphold this “standard” McAulay makes reference to in the tweet. The 2020 NFL MVP was visibly upset the Buccaneers were not called for defensive holding penalties during the NFC Championship Game.
Perhaps the NFL will need to address inconsistencies in assessing those calls going forward. But the Buccaneers couldn't care less after capturing the Lombardi Trophy thanks to their dominant Super Bowl performance.
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