Everyone held their breath when they saw Patrick Mahomes’ helmet shatter in the frigid Kansas City weather on Saturday night. It’s just not something you see every day and was clearly a product of the absurd cold on the field.
And former NFL referee Terry McAulay thinks the officials were a bit too generous to the Chiefs as Mahomes sorted his helmet mess out.
Given that Mahomes had a critical equipment issue, McAulay questioned why Kansas City didn’t have to take a timeout. Plus, why didn’t Mahomes have to leave the game? This is usually the case when a player has trouble with their equipment, but nothing of the sort happened to the Chiefs. Instead, the game continued on seamlessly.
This might be another case of classic officiating inconsistency:
"Equipment change, they stopped the clock, he really should have to go out or they take a time-out."
Terry McAulay is confused as Patrick Mahomes is allowed to replace a cracked helmet without a time-out or having to leave the game. pic.twitter.com/wrEZEngPYz
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 14, 2024
In the end, in a mostly uncompetitive game from the Miami Dolphins’ perspective, this sequence probably won’t (didn’t?) have much bearing on the final outcome. Still, you’d probably like to see the rules applied consistently — especially when they involve the NFL’s best player.