The ball don’t lie, and, as it turns out, neither does the camera.
The late fourth-quarter holding call on Philadelphia’s James Bradberry stirred a tremendous amount of controversy as Kansas City was making what would ultimately be their game-winning drive. A drive that was helped in no small part by this call on 3rd & 8.
Referee Carl Cheffers says he called holding on James Bradberry because of first part with James’s right hand
“The receiver went to the inside and he was attempting to release to the outside. The defender grabbed the jersey with his right hand”
pic.twitter.com/NfVQehibE0— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) February 13, 2023
Had the Chiefs not gotten that call, it would have been fourth down and could have very easily altered the game’s outcome. Fans and pundits immediately condemned the officials for what appeared to many – from the above angle – to be an innocuous and inconsequential action that did little to impede Chiefs receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and shouldn’t have been called.
Nor were critics assuaged by Bradberry’s post-game comments where he admitted to holding Smith-Schuster.
#Eagles CB James Bradberry admits he did wrong on that controversial penalty. “It was a holding. I tugged on the jersey.”pic.twitter.com/hnQgYxuVPt
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) February 13, 2023
However, a new video that freezes the moment of the infraction at precisely the right time – from the opposite angle – reveals that Bradberry’s grasp of the receiver’s jersey was a bit more consequential than most initially thought.
NFL Films gets the perfect shot of the hold on Juju Smith-Schuster. #Chiefs pic.twitter.com/eB3CL0paW1
— Nick Jacobs (@Jacobs71) February 15, 2023
As can be plainly seen, this is pretty much the textbook definition of holding. Bradberry has a handful of and complete grasp of Smith-Schuster’s jersey. Moreover, Bradberry raises his right arm after releasing his grasp of the jersey, which impedes Smith-Schuster’s progress down the field. Was it consequential enough to be called in the final moments of a Super Bowl contest? Who cares? That’s not the metric by which officials decide whether to call penalties. This is clearly a penalty and should have been called at any moment of any game.
It’s easy to bash the refs when they frequently get so many calls wrong. I get it. But they got this one right, and video evidence proves it.
Let it go.