NFL
NFL Referee Carl Cheffers Explains How Chris Jones Got Roughing the Passer While Holding the Ball After Terrible Chiefs-Raiders Call
Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sportscasting in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.
Get to know Tim Crean betterPublished11 Oct 2022
On the heels of the terrible roughing the passer call by NFL referee Jerome Boger involving Atlanta Falcons defensive tackle Grady Jarrett and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, NFL referee Carl Cheffers made an equally bad roughing the passer on Monday Night Football involving Kansas City Chiefs DT Chris Jones and Las Vegas Raiders QB Derek Carr.
After the game, Cheffers gave a better explanation than Boger did a little over 24 hours earlier. However, the 22-year veteran penalty-caller had the more challenging task of explaining how he called a penalty on a player who had the ball in his hands when the flag came out.
NFL referee Carl Cheffers bad roughing the passer call on Chris Jones
In an exciting Week 5 Monday Night Football game, Patrick Mahomes came back from a 17-0 deficit to lead the Chiefs to a 30-29 victory over their AFC West rival Raiders.
As the first half wore down and the Chiefs were losing 17-7, the KC defense seemed to make a huge stop when DT Chris Jones sacked QB Derek Carr, stripping the ball and recovering it all in one motion.
The huge play would have set up Mahomes and the offense with a 1st-and-10 with just over a minute left at eth Las Vegas 42-yard line. Instead, NFL referee Carl Cheffers called a shocking 15-yard roughing the passer penalty on Jones.
The call was seemingly due to Jones landing on Carr with his entire body weight, but replays also showed that as the pair were going down, Jones actually gained possession of the ball.
Cheffers’ call was terrible on the face of it, but the fumble made matters even worse. Many fans, and even Troy Aikman and Joe Buck, asked the question if Jones had possession of the ball, wouldn’t that negate the roughing the passer?
Cheffers explained to pool reporter Adam Teicher of ESPN after the game that it doesn’t matter who has the ball during a roughing the passer call. The reporter asked explicitly if “the fact the ball came out before the quarterback landed on the ground and the player landed on the quarterback, does that negate the penalty at all?”
“No, because he still gets passing protection until he can defend himself, NFL referee Carl Cheffers explained. “So, with him being in the passing posture and actually attempting to make a pass, he’s going to get full protection until the time he can actually protect himself. The fact that the ball came out and was subsequently recovered by the defense is not relevant as far as the protection the quarterback gets.”
While it’s a ridiculous explanation by Cheffers in general, it does help fans understand why — by rule — the fumble didn’t matter with the roughing the passer call. It doesn’t excuse the call itself, but it still is clarifying.
The NFL needs to address these phantom roughing the passing calls soon, and rumors are that they will look at the rules in-season after the rash of bad calls.
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