ESPN analyst Troy Aikman ripped the officials in Saturday’s AFC Divisional game between the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs for a controversial late hit call that went against the Texans.
Texans linebacker Henry To’oTo’o was called for unnecessary roughness after officials determined he hit a sliding Patrick Mahomes late in the third quarter of Saturday’s game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. Mahomes slid very late, and Aikman felt that it was ridiculous to expect a defender to account for that, even letting out a disgusted “come on” as the penalty was announced.
“He’s a runner. I could not disagree with that one more. He barely gets hit,” Aikman said of the flag. “They’ve got to address it in the offseason. You can’t, as a quarterback, run around and play games with defenders and then be able to draw a penalty.”
Henry To’oTo’o was called for a penalty after this hit on Patrick Mahomes. #HOUvsKC | ESPN, ABC, ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/w4E4cSI3FF
— ESPN (@espn) January 18, 2025
To Aikman’s point, it looked like To’oTo’o and teammate Folorunso Fatukasi hit each other harder than either of them hit Mahomes. The Chiefs quarterback seemingly hoped to bait Houston into a flag by going to the ground late, and he succeeded.
Aikman is hardly the only one who thinks quarterbacks exploiting late slides is a problem the NFL has to address. Tom Brady agrees with him, and has offered up a pretty radical plan to try to address it. Those calls will only get louder after this play.
