A penalty-free night for the Kansas City Chiefs and a chaotic postgame melee sent tempers flaring long after the final whistle at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday. As social media erupted over the officiating, Detroit Lions star wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown stepped into the storm, offering a brutally honest take that may surprise fans.
What Did Amon-Ra St. Brown Say About the Controversial Flag?
The Chiefs finished with zero accepted penalties, while the Lions were flagged four times for 38 yards, including an illegal motion that wiped out an early touchdown and a roughing‑the‑passer in the fourth quarter that extended a Chiefs scoring drive.
But the most controversial of them all was that early illegal motion call, one that reignited the long-running debate about officiating favoritism toward Kansas City. Detroit had opened the game with a dose of creativity, keeping its tradition of trick plays alive with a David Montgomery touchdown pass to quarterback Jared Goff.
After a brief celebration and a review of the play, officials ruled that Goff had committed an illegal shift by bounding out from under center, nullifying what could’ve been a momentum-setting score.
St. Brown wasn’t stunned by the call itself, but by how long it took to arrive. Speaking on his podcast, he described the moment: “We’re all celebrating. We get to the sideline, we sit down. We’re all done, then they blow the whistle. I’ve never seen a flag come in this late.”
The delay, though, may have been the product of confusion. The rule in question is seldom enforced, and even Goff admitted afterward that he’d never heard of such a violation.
“I’ve never heard this: because of how close I was to the center, that declares I’m the quarterback,” Goff said. “If that is the rule, I guess we need to do a little more research.”
While many fans pointed fingers at the officiating crew and accused the NFL of protecting Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, St. Brown refused to join the chorus. His message to the fanbase was blunt and grounded.
“The last thing any team should do is blame the refs for a loss,” he said. “I feel like it’s never up to the referees; you can never leave it up to them.
“Some fans feel like we got robbed. I don’t think we got robbed. I feel like we had plenty of plays, I had plays to make. We as a team had plays to make that we could’ve made that would’ve changed the game. … Could they have done a better job? Who knows? … We gotta make the plays that come to us, we can’t rely on the refs.”
There were indeed a few questionable moments that seemed to favor Kansas City, including what looked like a missed holding call on Travis Kelce late in the game. But in the end, as St. Brown emphasized, Detroit’s downfall wasn’t about flags or officiating.
The Chiefs’ offense, ranked sixth in PFSN’s Impact Metric, simply executed better and did what championship-caliber teams do: capitalize on opportunities.