Eagles’ Nick Sirianni Tore Into Ref After Chiefs Got Early Questionable Call

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Super Bowl LIX was not even one drive old when controversy surrounding the referees struck.
The Philadelphia Eagles received the ball for the first possession of the game and decided to go for it when faced with a fourth down near midfield.
Jalen Hurts dropped back to pass and hurled a beauty of a deep ball to A.J. Brown, who hauled it in for a big gain. However, the referee overseeing the sequence threw a flag for offensive pass interference—a questionable call that got Tom Brady fired up and fans chanting their displeasure early on.
This was called OPI on AJ Brown. Oh boy. pic.twitter.com/TtLpfncAjU
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) February 9, 2025
Afterwards the Fox Sports cameras caught Philly head coach Nick Sirianni tearing into the official who explained the call to him afterwards.
Eagles HC Nick Sirianni to referee Ron Tolbert after the OPI call on AJ Brown:
— Arye Pulli (@AryePulliNFL) February 9, 2025
"That's terrible." pic.twitter.com/F8Mb8ZVPbY
While Brown did appear to hit the Chiefs defender's facemask, it was the sort of 50/50 penalty that fans would prefer go uncalled with a championship on the line. It also doesn't do much to quell the ongoing narrative that the Chiefs benefit from a disproportional amount of calls from the officials compared to their opponents.
Sirianni is clearly frustrated with how the game started for his team. Fortunately for him, there's a lot of game left to be played.
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Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.
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