Fans had wild conspiracy theory about Titans-Chiefs ref throwing penalty flag at the snap

What really happened …

If there’s anything you should always expect from NFL fans, it’s a good conspiracy theory after conference title games.

The Tennessee Titans’ season ended one game short of the Super Bowl with Sunday’s 35-24 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. While the Chiefs managed to take control of the game in the second half, there were a couple big calls that went Kansas City’s way, including a questionable, 40-yard pass interference penalty.

But NFL Twitter couldn’t get over a call from the Titans’ final possession of the first half. The Titans handed the ball off to Derrick Henry for no gain, but you can see the side judge immediately reach for his flag and throw it upon the snap. The call ended up being holding against the Titans.

The video certainly is suspect. Obviously, there’s no way that the side judge could’ve had that kind of quick reaction to call holding. It’s the kind of conspiracy video that predictably had Titans fans fired up.

But in all likelihood, the side judge wasn’t calling holding. He was likely throwing a flag for illegal formation.

The receiver closest to the side judge, A.J. Brown, was in position on the line of scrimmage. Since the Titans already had the tight end on the line of scrimmage (giving them a total of seven), Brown should have been positioned off the line of scrimmage.

Now, the officials only announced the holding penalty on the Titans, so at the very least, they made a mistake by not announcing both penalties. But they weren’t preemptively making calls to favor the Chiefs. There’s just no way.

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