Bill was HEATED after the Patriots were robbed of a turnover.
He had a point, though
Things really are different in New England this year. Tom Brady is gone and the Patriots are having lousy calls go against them.
In the second quarter of Monday night’s loss to the Chiefs, the Patriots were denied a turnover by a really brutal refereeing decision. Chase Winovich and Deatrich Wise Jr. combined to sack Patrick Mahomes and the ball ended up the hands of Shilique Calhoun, who had a clear path to the end zone.
But the turnover didn’t count, because referee Tony Corrente ruled Mahomes was “in the grasp” and blew the play dead before the ball came out.
Here’s a closer look.
You don’t have to be a Patriots fan to think that’s a bogus call. Winovich barely begins to take Mahomes to the ground when the ball comes loose.
The call had Bill Belichick absolutely irate. The camera cut to him on the sideline, literally red in the face, berating an official. He might have even had steam coming out of his ears.
Corrente explained after the game that he was quick with the whistle because he was concerned for Mahomes’s safety.
“I felt that he was being controlled quite a bit prior to him actually going to the ground. And as he was being controlled, other players were coming in at him,” Corrente told a pool reporter. “And so with those other players baring down on him, a quarterback is considered in the grasp and his forward progress is considered stopped when I feel as though the player's safety is being jeopardized. And that was the case in this instance. So, rather than allow him to get hit by a second and third player, we shut it down and considered it forward progress at that point.”
The shoe is on the other foot for the Patriots now. They’re not the only team whose star quarterback is being protected by the refs.
A touchdown there would have given the Patriots some life but considering how the rest of the game played out, it probably wouldn’t have been the difference between a win and a loss. So the Mahomes play still isn’t even close to the worst example of the Patriots being screwed by a misapplication of the in-the-grasp rule.
The best of SI
Ranking all 16 possible World Series matchups. ... The Rays are legit World Series contenders but also largely anonymous. ... Conor Orr wrote about how screwed the Texans are before Bill O’Brien got fired and then wrote about how the Texans blew it by not firing him sooner.
Around the sports world
Arsenal laid off its dinosaur mascot, Gunnersaurus, after 27 years in a cost-cutting measure. ... Ron Rivera intends to keep coaching while he undergoes his final three weeks of cancer treatment. ... Minor league baseball players’ class-action lawsuit over low pay will be allowed to go forward after a ruling by the Supreme Court. ... The NFL is threatening teams with forfeiting games for not following COVID-19 protocols.
Who’s "we"?
Doesn’t surprise me one bit
Hopkins takes the high road
Dan Quinn is trying to join Bill O’Brien in unemployment
Sounds smart!
The anti-Jon Gruden
Better get the shovel out of your bag
Just like in the ’90s
The classic Flames look is one of the sharpest in sports
Just about the only thing that went the Patriots’ way
That’s three COVID-19 violations for the Raiders now
(This one, Jon Gruden’s mask and allowing an unauthorized person in the locker room.)
He’s too cool
Not sports
The house from The Silence of the Lambs is up for sale in Pennsylvania. ... A 102-carat diamond praised as being as close to perfect as possible sold at auction for $16 million. ... Professors are starting to give credit to Islamic scholars who studied natural selection a thousand years before Charles Darwin. ... The release of the highly anticipated Dune remake is getting pushed back from December to October 2021.
Absolutely not
The guy on the bike got wrecked
A good song
Email dan.gartland@si.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.