3 Eagles who shoulder the loss to Chiefs in Super Bowl 57

1. James Bradberry

James Bradberry admitted he did in fact tug Chiefs wideout Juju Smith-Schuster’s jersey on that third down play, which should theoretically put an end to the officiating controversy.

Yet the controversy rages on, and Bradberry probably wishes he had a time machine so he could keep his hands off Smith-Schuster as the Chiefs receiver tried to catch an overthrown pass in the fourth quarter.

Around the league, fans and pundits lamented the unfortunate consequences of the referee’s blown whistle at the end of the game. If Bradberry hadn’t been flagged for defensive holding, the Eagles would have just under two minutes and no timeouts to drive down the field for a potential game-winning score.

There’s no guarantee that Jalen Hurts would have successfully completed that drive, but it’s more about the principle of the thing. The referees robbed the Eagles of their chance to get back in the game. End of story.

Bradberry is on this list because he was the Eagles player who committed the penalty, but the onus of his “mistake” doesn’t fall on him alone. This is not the same as Bengals’ Joseph Ossai’s unnecessary roughness penalty at the end of the AFC Championship — this is the case of an egregious game-deciding call, and the Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVII victory will eternally be marred with the unseemly black spot of extremely suspect officiating.