I'm asking this question because I don't really know but does the alignment assistance from the officials only come after the player asks or do they offer it up unsolicited as well?

The NFL will always find a way to get their desired outcome. Remember, the NFL has defended its ways in court by admitting that they are "entertainment" (Jets fan sues after Pats get caught cheating and no action was taken to strip them of wins), so it's all theater. This time is just so happens that the call is/was technically correct, but only used when the NFL needs something to manipulate a game's outcome.

What's really funny is after the NFL and NFL apologists defend that call, which is fine, they'll spin the wheel of excuses to write-off other penalties they don't call. Here's the current "NFL Official's Wheel of Bad/Wrong/Missed Calls Excuse":

1) It was a bang-bang play
2) We can't see everything
3) We can't call THAT at THAT point in the game
4) We were letting them play at that moment in the game
5) Players shouldn't allow bad calls to affect a game
6) Geeez we're part-time employees, this ain't even our main job
7) We're not perfect
8) XYZ is subjective
9) There's a hold on every play, we can't call them all or nobody would score
10) Radio silence

but they didn't get screwed he was obviously offsides. That was a easy call. You teach kids in JV to point to the ref to check. Last weeks PI obviously should have been called. But the refs called the previous two plays in KC's favor and that would have been 3 plays in a row. The roughing call on Mahomes shouldn't had been called he was clearly in the field of play and the next play the KCC receiver was clearly down inbounds and the clock should have continued to run. The bottomline is the PI has to be called . The inconsistent officiating has season long effects. One bad call bleeds into another game time and time again.

Are we not entertained?

The more I think about it and the money that these players make for playing a game, the less I'm inclined to even care about sports.

We get bent out of shape, upset, rage on the internet for days and what is the outcome?

The officiating was greatly biased from the beginning. The Oline holding by Buffalo was ignored until it was so obvious late in the 3rd they had to call it, the 2 OPI's on Kelce were contact before 5 yards and they were try to play bump an run on him. They want Buffalo in the playoffs so they tried to steer the game in that direction, period. If that isn't the reason, the spread being -1.5 for the Chiefs, may be the reason, and the league is going to start hearing these rumblings if they continue to have questionable calls every ****ing week in most games.

Bottom line is they should have thrown a flag for illegal contact against Toney on the same ****ing play, it's as obvious as it gets, especially after they threw it on Williams on Buffalo's previous possession. Can anyone post the play showing Toney getting mauled at 10 yards? If not, I will try post when I get back.

it's never called because shit man, how hard is it to not do it?

I suspect it's never called because you don't often have a WR standing that tight to the lineman and so far forward that his foot is literally past the nearest defenders head into the neutral zone.

I mean damn fellas, what choice did he really give the officials with that one? It's just so stinkin' obvious. His BACK foot is lined up about where Rice's front foot is on the opposite side of the formation . Visually it's just so blatant.

It doesn't get called because...well...most players aren't stupid enough to do it. It's just a REALLY bad penalty. There's no excuse for it.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This photo removes all doubt. 19 was blatantly offside. <a href="https://t.co/KD0R0Rvguy">pic.twitter.com/KD0R0Rvguy</a></p>&mdash; ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) <a href="https://twitter.com/ProFootballTalk/status/1734210600471822339?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Billion dollar business - and I have to laugh that people actually believe the "ineptitude" narrative.

If the NFL thought it was a problem, it would have been addressed years ago.

Add to that, the NFL does not allow coaches to challenge PI or other penalties.....I dont see any other conclusion than the NFL is perfectly ok with how officials call games.

(cough - cough - vegas - cough)

I want to be really mad about this - if Toney checked, that’s ridiculous for the ref not to scoot him back. This is jaywalking where there’s not much advantage to the penalty. At the same time the refs are gonna give a lot of leeway if he just lines up behind the ball. That’s probably the very simple ask and he did that poorly. You gotta enforce some of that so defenses know who’s eligible

that's basically it in your last 2 sentences to me. it's the inconsistency. last week the reason no DPI was called was "it didn't affect the outcome of the play" which is obviously bullshit. but I'd be curious to know (and I'll never get the answer) is what standard are they going by for affecting the outcome of a play.

like I would be much less butthurt if the two penalties didn't have wildly different outcomes and reasonings.

I had the same outrage that Andy/Mahomes are expressing now, LAST week over the missed DPI call.

I think that was way more egregious.

Toney was blatantly offsides.

Look at Taylor. They could've easily called him for illegal formation as well. I do not understand why these mistakes are being repeated on a weekly basis but the entire offensive coaching staff needs to get their collective shit together and get this ****ery under control instead of whining about the refs being mean.

He's lined up a FULL YARD ahead of where he should be when you look at Rice on the other side.

But sure, Pat. Let 'em play.

And THIS:

Since game one this year, the refs have been hyper-critical of our alignment AND the timing of our get-off at the snap. The Chiefs are treated differently in these areas than other teams. Those are facts anyone can see.

I doubt this call is made in this situation if the whole fiasco against the Lions doesn't happen week one.

NFL refs were badly embarrassed when the entire league-wide fanbase watched Cris Collinsworth criticize Taylor's alignment/timing during the season opener. A memo was circulated after that and they've been overcompensating with those calls against the Chiefs all season.