The Green Bay Packers left Sunday’s 20-17 loss to the Detroit Lions with plenty to complain about, and they were not shy about it.
Safety Xavier McKinney made his frustration plain in a video posted by Matt Scheidman of The Athletic, saying he would rather take an NFL fine than sit back and watch his team get hurt by what he saw as bad officiating. Even Fox broadcaster Tom Brady weighed in, questioning some of the flags and saying Green Bay should not have been called for roughing the passer.
The penalty numbers told part of the story. Detroit was flagged five times for 50 yards, while Green Bay took eight penalties for 81 yards.
The debate spilled onto social media, where the officiating from the Lions-Packers game drew heavy criticism. Then the NFL poured fuel on it with a trollish post of its own, sharing a video of Lions players dancing after Green Bay defensive lineman Karl Brooks was called for offsides and gave Detroit a first down with two minutes left in the fourth quarter.
“Did we miss somebody?” the league captioned the post, pairing the line with a grinning face with sweat emoji.
That prompted a wave of angry replies from fans who felt the officials had already gone too far.
“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,” wrote another.
“Yeah…..your officials made up some calls today in this game,” another 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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