Editorial

Washington Commanders’ Fans Irate After Wide Receiver Terry McLaurin Asks For Courtesy And Immediately Gets Flagged

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The New York Giants may have gotten the 20-12 win against the Washington Commanders on Sunday Night Football Dec. 18, but it's completely surrounded by shady controversy. [Twitter/Screenshot/Public — User: @iam_johnw]

[Twitter/Screenshot/Public — User: @iam_johnw]

Andrew Powell Sports and Entertainment Blogger
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What the hell happened here?

The Washington Commanders have a couple of reasons to be pissed off after their 20-12 Sunday Night Football loss to the New York Giants on Dec. 18 — especially with the game’s referees.

With only a minute to go, the Commanders needed a touchdown and two-point conversion to send the game into overtime. After quarterback Taylor Heinicke scrambled all the way to the one-yard line for a 3rd-and-goal situation, they put themselves in a position to make the needed plays.

On the next play, Washington running back Brian Robinson punched the ball into the end zone for a TD to check off the first step on their to-do list, but, the officials ended up calling back the play after an illegal formation penalty on wide receiver Terry McLaurin. The refs ruled McLaurin wasn’t close enough to the line of scrimmage, which took the touchdown off of the board.

But then NBC ran the replay, which showed McLaurin appearing to ask the line judge if he was lined up appropriately — twice. One referee even seemingly gave him a thumbs up. After the game, McLaurin confirmed this version of events.

Here’s a closer look:

Here’s McLaurin talking about what happened:

And that’s not the only thing that was shady in this game.

You also had this blatantly obvious pass interference that wasn’t called:

Can I have “why do people think the NFL is rigged?” for $1,000, Alex?

I’m not exactly sure how to explain any of this. You have a wide receiver that got the green light from referees twice before they flagged him. Then you have the incredibly obvious pass interference that was ignored.

I can’t help but get the feeling that something shady is going on here. And it just makes your suspicions even worse since a New York City team is involved. We’ve heard those accusations of NYC bias in the past — gotta get them ratings and sell them advertising spots, baby! (RELATED: Watch New England Patriots Lose In Absurd Fashion As Time Expires)

We’ve heard in the past how fans think the NFL is rigged, and when you have episodes like this, how can you honestly blame them?

Now, I have a journalistic duty to stay with the facts, so I can’t just bluntly accuse the National Football League of rigging their games. At the end of the day, no matter how we feel, none of us have a slither of evidence to back any of that up. But all I’m saying is: I can completely understand why a fan would think that the league is rigged, and believe me, there’s a ton of them.

This whole situation is shady as hell, and just adds fuel to the fire.