SI

NFL World Baffled by Colts-Falcons Referees’ Bizarre Mistake During OT Coin Toss

Liam McKeone

Raheem Morris and Shane Steichen watched as the referees managed to screw up the OT coin toss for Colts-Falcons
Raheem Morris and Shane Steichen watched as the referees managed to screw up the OT coin toss for Colts-Falcons / NFL Network
In this story:

The Colts and Falcons faced off in Germany on Sunday morning to kick off the day’s NFL Week 10 action. It wound up a fairly entertaining game and went to overtime following a game-tying field goal by Indianapolis with fewer than 30 seconds remaining. The Colts wound up victorious thanks to another monster Jonathan Taylor performance capped off by his game-winning touchdown in OT, but it didn’t go down without a truly bizarre snafu from the officiating crew.

As always, there was a coin toss to start overtime that determined who got the ball first. The referees allowed Indianapolis to make the heads or tails call; they were right and the Colts were therefore able to choose whether to kick or receive first, opting to receive. The broadcast then went to commercial.

Upon the game’s return, the announcers revealed the mistake: it turns out the referees managed to screw up the coin toss. The game was played in Germany but the Colts were technically the home team. Which meant Atlanta should have made the call on the coin toss, not Indy. This mistake was rectified while the commercials played and when viewers tuned back in, it was the Falcons who were receiving the OT kickoff, not the Colts.

It isn’t the craziest mistake to make in context of Atlanta playing a “home” game in Europe. But how often do you see referees mess up the coin toss? There aren’t many factors at play.

The error left the NFL world baffled and they let the officiating crew have it on social media.

It didn’t end up making a big difference. The Falcons were unable to score with their first possession and Taylor walked the Colts down the field to score the walk-off TD. But it’s a pretty brutal mistake to make in a big spot.

The Colts move to 8-2 with the win, while the Falcons are sitting at 3-6 without their first-round pick next season.

More NFL on Sports Illustrated

feed

Published
Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

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.

Home/NFL