The Tennessee Titans lost 23-13 to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 11, and poor officiating was a recurring theme all day long.
The Titans were slapped with 13 flags for 91 yards in total. The majority of them were a result of sloppiness on the Titans part, but a handful were arguably the difference in the outcome of the game.
The Vikings scored 3 touchdowns, and all three came on drives that would have ended in the Titans receiving the ball if not for an objectively incorrect penalty that gave the Vikings second life. Every single touchdown drive should not, in fact, have ended in a touchdown. Naturally, Titans fans spent most of the day furious.
But there was one call in particular that rose to the level of true absurdity. It was the bad call of the week, so bad in fact that it drew the attention of the entire national NFL media online.
After a strong goal line stand from the Titans on 2nd and 3rd down from the 1 yard line, the Viking chose to go for the touchdown on 4th and goal. Sam Darnold dropped back to pass, targeted Jordan Addison running towards the left boundary of the endzone, and the pass was broken up by a strong hit from Mike Brown. A fantastic defensive effort... unless you ask the officials.
Two referees threw their flag for Unnecessary Roughness on Titans S Mike Brown, the Vikings were given a fresh set of downs, and they punched it in. After the game, the pool reporter got this explanation from the officials:
Referee Clete Blakeman: “We had two officials call it. Essentially, the defensive player launched into the receiver – who is considered a defenseless player – and there was helmet contact to the chest and neck area.”
Launched? The player launched, and this was what made his conduct a violation of the rules? Two officials concurred that this was Unnecessary Roughness because the player launched?
Let's take another look ourselves, shall we? here's the video of the play. Does it look like anybody launched here to you?
And just for good measure, here's a still image of the moment of impact:
When the call was made, head coach Brian Callahan went thermonuclear on the officials. He was the avatar in that moment embodying the emotions of every Titans fan (as well as mere enjoyers of justice) everywhere. His righteous anger drew an Unsportsmanlike Conduct call of his own, which was well worth the opportunity to deliver a tongue-lashing. It didn't actually hurt the team, moving the ball half the distance to the goal line and shaving a couple inches off the Vikings' eventual TD sneak. Frankly, I'm sure fans wouldn't have minded him drawing a second one just for good measure.
There was no launch here. Anybody with eyes can see that. Even if you aren't exactly sure how the word launch is applied, you can just tell looking at the play that nobody did anything resembling a launch.
The league's own technical definition of a "launch" backs up what everybody watching saw as well.
Article 9, Section b, Subsection 3 of the 2024 NFL Rulebook defines the term: "It is an illegal launch if a player (i) leaves one or both feet prior to contact to spring forward and upward into his opponent, and (ii) uses any part of his helmet to initiate forcible contact against any part of his opponent’s body."
This definition was even just updated to be even more protective of offensive players in the spring of 2023. The NFL Competition Committee voted to approve adding two words to the rulebook at the annual Owner's Meetings earlier this year. What previously required leaving two feet to be deemed a launch would now add "one or (both)" to the definition, meaning a launching motion with even one foot still planted would be illegal.
So even under a new and more protective definition, what Mike Brown did didn't rise to the level of a rules violation. He was simply flagged for laying a good hit.
Two referees, up close, with separate viewing angles agreed it was illegal! And then after having a period to review the officials footage, or simply look up at the video board where the replay was run more times than you could count, the head official still came into the postgame interview and lied to our faces about what happened.
