The Pittsburgh Steelers narrowly hung on to beat the Kansas City Chiefs 18-16 in the AFC Divisional Round on Sunday night at Arrowhead Stadium, and the finish certainly didn’t come without controversy.
Trailing 18-10, the Chiefs scored a touchdown on a Spencer Ware one-yard run with 2:43 remaining. The Chiefs tried a two-point conversion to tie the game, and it appeared they were successful on a Demetrius Harris reception. However, Chiefs left tackle Eric Fisher was called for holding 38-year-old Steelers linebacker James Harrison to wipe the play out. The penalty moved Kansas City back 10 yards, and they failed on the second two-point conversion attempt.
Here’s video of the wiped-out play and holding call:
Well, Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce was livid about the call when meeting with the media postgame:
That wasn’t a hold on my guy Eric Fisher. I hope No. 72 doesn’t go the entire offseason thinking it was his fault. That was horseshit, flat out.
And Kelce really rips on the referee — Carl Cheffers — here:
The momentum’s getting on our side and then we just get our jugulars ripped out because ref felt bad for James Harrison falling on the ground.
It’s ignorance. The ref No. 51 shouldn’t even be able to wear a zebra jersey ever again. He shouldn’t even be able to work at fucking Foot Locker.
Hoo boy. It’s certainly lame to have a season (basically) end on a holding call, but that looked like a pretty fair call by Cheffers.
This is just two months after Kelce was ejected from a Chiefs game against the Jacksonville Jaguars for throwing his towel at an official. Kelce was fined $24,000 for that incident, and will likely be hearing from the league again for his comments on Cheffers.
UPDATE- Travis Kelce has indeed been fined by the NFL for his comments. NFL.Com’s Ian Rapoport reports that the fine amount is $12,500:
From last week, #Chiefs TE Travis Kelce was fined $12,500 for his personal attack on an individual game official. #footlocker
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 21, 2017
[NFL Network]
