The Green Bay Packers left Sunday’s 20-17 loss to the Detroit Lions angry about the officiating, and that frustration spilled well beyond the locker room.
In a video posted by Matt Scheidman of The Athletic, safety Xavier McKinney said he would rather risk a fine from the NFL than sit back and watch his team get hurt by what he sees as poor officiating. Fox broadcaster Tom Brady also took issue with some of the calls, saying Green Bay should not have been called for roughing the passer.
The penalty count told part of the story. Detroit was flagged five times for 50 yards, while the Packers were hit with eight penalties for 81 yards.
The controversy kept building on social media, where plenty of fans were already unhappy with the way the game was officiated. Then the NFL tossed fuel on the fire, posting a video of Lions players dancing after Green Bay defensive lineman Karl Brooks was called for offsides. That penalty gave Detroit a first down with two minutes left in the fourth quarter.
“Did we miss somebody?” the league wrote in the caption, followed by a grinning face with sweat emoji.
The post landed like a jab at the Packers, the kind of taunt the league would almost certainly flag if it came from a player. Fans wasted no time piling on in the replies.
“Yeah you missed 8 taunting penalties,” wrote one fan who believed the Lions should have been penalized.
“This post will stay up and there will never be an explanation or apology. It’s annoying,” another posted.
“How is this not a penalty!? How are you promoting this!?
You are a complete joke of an organization!” one commenter wrote.
“Saving this tweet so I can send it to people when they ask why I stopped watching football,” another fan said.
“Yeah…..your officials made up some calls today in this game,” a fan argued. “Better start looking at your officiating crews. NBA had a problem and now the NFL appears to have a problem.”
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The reaction was immediate and loud, with fans, media members and even former NFL quarterback Tom Brady publicly questioning the penalty. For Green Bay, the frustration is easy to understand: a decisive sequence in a one-score game turned on a call that left plenty of people asking what, exactly, officials saw. [Read more 🡒]