What Carl Cheffers, refs said about questionable James Bradberry hold

Carl Cheffers defended his officiating crew for calling a questionable holding penalty on James Bradberry to ultimately decide Super Bowl 57.

Death, taxes and referees never admitting when they are wrong.

Although one could argue for Carl Cheffers’ crew for making the right call on the questionable James Bradberry holding penalty, the slight grabbing of the jersey ultimately decided Super Bowl 57. An incomplete pass on third down would have forced the Kansas City Chiefs to kick. Instead, Bradberry’s penalty gave the Chiefs a new set of downs to bleed out the clock to virtually nothing.

The Philadelphia Eagles got the ball back, but they had no shot to erase the three-point deficit.

Cheffers defended his crew’s decision to the umpteenth degree, but what a way to ruin a game…

Here is what he told Lindsay Jones of The Ringer in the PFWA Reporter Pool about the holding call.

"“The receiver went to the inside and he was attempting to release to the outside. The defender grabbed the jersey with his right hand and restricted him from releasing to the outside. So, therefore, we called defensive holding … It was a clear case of a jersey grab that caused restriction … There was no debate. Just making sure what we had, and once he told us what we had, we went about our business.”"

While nobody is debating the jersey grab, as that was painfully obvious, the ball Patrick Mahomes threw was not even close to the receiver. It was borderline uncatchable, which is what contributed to the call being so egregious. Factor it occurring on what was the game-winning winning drive for the Chiefs and you can totally understand why Philadelphia and third-party fans are all up in arms.

This was an incredibly competitive Super Bowl between two great teams ruined by the officiating.

Carl Cheffers defends the James Bradberry holding call because of course, he did

As we try to encapsulate all that was the 2023 NFL season, we had a great postseason marred by questionable officiating throughout the entire campaign. The last few weeks did an excellent job of covering up one of the most frustrating seasons in recent NFL memory from a competitive standpoint and a fan’s perspective: Bad coaching, rough quarterback play and horrific officiating…

We were fortunate to get the two best teams in the NFL with both No. 1 seeds in the Super Bowl. The game absolutely lived up to the hype. But here we are looking at the bottom half of the league perpetually festering in chaotic dysfunction. We have people actually debating if the league is rigged. Let’s just say the referees are not going a great job of trying to kill that ridiculous narrative.

Ultimately, the NFL needs to make a few changes when it ratifies its next CBA. The first would have to be universal playing surfaces across the board. The State Farm Stadium turf resembled something you would see in Knoxville or Chicago. Another key sticking point would have to be full-time officials, or at the very least, some degree of accountability in this particular NFL department.

Let’s just say Cheffers will have something put into his cheesesteak the next time he is in Philly.