The Truth Revealed: NFL Breaks Silence on Raiders-Chiefs’ Fiasco! League Explains Controversial Ending

The scene still plays out for the Las Vegas Raiders like a collective nightmare.

On the Raiders’ final drive of their Black Friday matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Raiders looked close to completing the biggest upset of the season. Then, disaster struck when rookie center Jackson Powers-Johnson snapped the ball to quarterback Aidan O’Connell while he was not looking. The snafu resulted in a fumble, recovered by the Chiefs.

However, a penalty was called on the play, and the officials initially were considering calling a false start on the Raiders. While it would have pushed the Raiders back, the play would have been considered dead and they would retain possession of the ball. Instead, after the officials congregated to discuss the penalty, the ruling on the field was an illegal shift, meaning that the play stood as called. The Chiefs gained possession, and ultimately kneeled to burn the clock and escape with a 19-17 victory.

The controversial finish to the game sent shockwaves around the NFL. O’Connell tried to take the criticism of the botched snap. while conspiracy theorists used the referees’ decision as the latest example of the Chiefs benefitting from poor officiating.

The NFL, however, has come forward with an explanation for why the penalty was changed from the initially-signaled false start to the costly illegal shift.

“Had the clock been running at the snap, then by rule an illegal shift would convert to a false start. Since the clock was stopped (due to the spike on the second-down play), an illegal shift is a live-ball foul.” said NFL senior vice president of football and international communications Michael Signora, according to The Athletic.

Prior to the ill-fated snap, O’Connell had spiked the ball to stop the clock at sixteen seconds. While the Raiders were planning to snap the ball to run another play, O’Connell and Powers-Johnson ultimately miscommunicated while the former was instructing his teammates to get into their proper positions.

Signora is not the only person to provide a public explanation, as NFL broadcaster Kirk Herbstreit said something similar through X.

It is good to see the NFL taking accountability for the decision made by its officiating crew. It does not make the loss any less painful for the Raiders, however.