Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins caught two passes for 18 yards (one was a touchdown, another a two-point conversion) in a blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night. His main contribution to the pre-garbage time proceedings was a dropped pass in the open field as Patrick Mahomes desperately tried to cut into a 24-0 deficit before halftime. It was actually one of the plays that's most instructive about the general vibe of Super Bowl LIX.
That gave him time to do a careful accounting of all the calls made by the officiating crew and share his feelings during the postgame.
"I saw a lot of things in the media about the refs," Hopkins said. "There were a lot of touchy calls. Are y'all going to report that? Are y'all going to talk about the refs now?"
#Chiefs WR DeAndre Hopkins: "I saw a lot of things in the media about the refs. … There were a lot of touchy calls. Are ya'll gonna report that? Are ya'll gonna talk about the refs now?"
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) February 10, 2025
pic.twitter.com/oy1g5t3apy
On one hand it's easy to understand Hopkins's frustration. The conspiracy theory that NFL refs, with the knowledge that it would tick off 31 other franchises, were somehow rigging game in Kansas City's favor went from something that would make someone walk away from the theorist to one of the overarching storylines even in mainstream media. Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce wondered aloud how all that happened once it went beyond the breaking point.
On the other, c'mon. The Eagles were winning 40-6 at one point. They would have been winning even more had A.J. Brown not been called for a dubious pass interference penalty on their opening drive. On balance, perhaps Philadelphia got some breaks along the way. Also of note was them beating the brakes off the Chiefs.
Hopkins, already dealing with the disappointment of coming oh-so-close to being a part of a three-peat, must now frustratingly click through the copious Monday coverage for mentions of the officiating which, at best, deserves to be in paragraph 21 or 22.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as DeAndre Hopkins Wants to Know If Media Will Report 'Touchy Calls' Against Chiefs.
