It was a total bs call. Far worse than that happened on practically every play and was not called.
I had no money wagered on the winner of this game. Only prop bets. But there is NO WAY that call should have been made. They ruined one of the best SB games I’ve ever seen. It would have been an exciting finish.
Actually, the call WON a big bet for me; “Lead change in the last minute of the game + 700”. So, from that standpoint, I loved it. But, it ruined the game and makes the entire sport looked rigged.
The defender admitted after the game that he was holding the jersey and hoped it wouldn’t get called. Bad luck that the WR he defended happened to be the primary target, so all eyes were on him.
Plus, most of the other ticky-tacky calls (Chiefs getting a fumble return for a TD after knocking it out of the receiver’s hands; that got overturned into an incomplete pass. Eagles’ WR getting a 3rd down catch that was bobbled right as he went out of bounds; after review, it was upheld instead of being overruled as an incomplete pass) that night went the Eagles’ way, so blaming this outcome entirely on the referees is — for once — uncalled for. Blame the Eagles’ pass rush for not sacking Mahomes once, or their defense for not showing up in the 2nd half when the Chiefs went on a tear.
I imagine that if the Chiefs had gone for a go-ahead touchdown, leaving 1:30+ on the clock for the Eagles to have some decent chance of coming back, it probably wouldn’t feel the same. But no: Andy Reid played mercilessly with the clock, as their WR intentionally slid down instead of going for the touchdown. It was definitely a very low-energy way (and some might say unsatisfying) to end it...but if you’ve got an accurate kicker, it was absolutely the smart way to end it so your opponent’s high-powered offense has as little time as possible to respond.
They got by with a lot of would-be penalties ... false starts, holding, etc. So I can't figure out why anyone is complaining - especially when the guy admitted that he was holding on that particular play.