Carl Cheffers, whose decision to call a late penalty on Kansas City dismayed a number of Chiefs players, will be the referee at Super Bowl LI next month.
Cheffers flagged Chiefs offensive lineman Eric Fisher for a hold on a successful two-point conversion on Sunday. The score would have levelled the game but instead the attempt was replayed and the Chiefs failed to convert. They ended up losing the divisional playoff game 18-16 to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was particularly aggrieved. “Referee No 51 shouldn’t even be able to wear a zebra jersey ever again,” Kelce said. “He shouldn’t even be able to work at fucking Foot Locker.”
“For it to end like that, with the referee literally taking it out of our hands, that hurts,” Kelce added. “You try to play this game with integrity, to the end of the whistle, and when the refs want to take over the game and make it their own platform, there’s nothing you can do about it. That wasn’t a hold on my guy Eric Fisher. I hope [Fisher] doesn’t go the entire offseason thinking it was his fault. That was horseshit, flat out.”
Quarterback Alex Smith agreed with Kelce: “I’ve seen a lot worse not called,” he said.
Cheffers has been an NFL official since 2000, and became a referee in 2008. His father worked as an official in college football.
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