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Rex Ryan Wins, CBS Loses in Bills-Chiefs Offsides Controversy

Also in Traina Thoughts: reason for dueling ‘Monday Night Football’ games tonight; Vikings’ must-see celebration; Shohei Ohtani’s taxes; and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. There was so much fallout from the Kadarius Toney offsides penalty that wiped out what would've been an all-time legendary play by Travis Kelce at the end of Sunday’s Bills-Chiefs game, so let’s go bullet points.

• Whether or not you like the call, this overhead shot, when you click on it, gives you the best view of how offsides Toney was on the play.

• Noted foot fetishist Rex Ryan had the best reaction to Toney’s penalty on Get Up Monday morning. “You know I like toes. I don’t like this toe,” Ryan said on ESPN. This prompted Ryan Clark to turn to the camera and say, “Hey, Kadarius Toney, if you turn Rex against feet, you a bad man.”

• Outstanding work from the cameraperson here who caught Mahomes telling Josh Allen, “Oddest f---ing call I’ve ever seen,” as if Allen was going to nod his head in agreement.

• Here’s how rare an offsides penalty is on an offensive player.

• Here was my favorite moment from that whole fiasco. Even though the flag was thrown right at the snap, CBS still insisted on cutting to Taylor Swift instead of first getting the ruling. Jim Nantz was on top of things, alerting viewers to the flag as soon as the ball was snapped. But the producer or director or whoever, caught up in their ridiculous Swift hysteria, made sure to cut to the suite, which just showed a bunch of random people celebrating, instead of sticking to the field and seeing what the flag was for first. 

OF COURSE, CBS didn’t bother to show Swift after the touchdown was negated, which actually would’ve been a much better reaction shot.

• I am the very last person that wants to defend the officials, and I don’t love the call, but I have to defend the ref who threw the flag on one point. He threw the flag right at the snap. He did not know Kelce was going to make an all-time play. He didn’t throw the flag after the fact. No matter what happened on that play, the offsides was going to be be called.

• Even though it didn’t count, it’s still hard to fathom just how perfectly Kelce threw that lateral to Toney. He couldn’s have had more than maybe half a second, tops, to spot Toney, recognize that he was open and then make the throw. 

2. Many people have asked why there are two Monday Night Football games starting at the same time (8:15 p.m. ET). NFL VP of broadcast planning Mike North discussed this topic with me on SI Media With Jimmy Traina back in May when the schedule came out, and the reason is fairly simple: "Trying something new."

Here’s North’s full comment on the side-by-side games, Packers vs. Giants and Titans vs. Dolphins.

3. A couple of weeks ago, Seahawks wideout DK Metcalf, trying to work around the NFL's taunting rules, started to celebrate plays using sign language. He celebrated a touchdown against the Niners on Sunday by using sign language.

Apparently, Metcalf was signing, “My little dog w-o-o-f”

But after the Niners beat the Seahawks, 28–16, it was San Francisco long snapper Taybor Pepper who was doing sign language.

Pepper confirmed that he signed, “14, f--- around and find out.” This generated big reaction on social media, so Pepper then used the newfound attention to plug himself for the Pro Bowl.

4. The Vikings had the best celebration of the NFL season on Sunday.

5. Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million deal with the Dodgers caused quite a frenzy Saturday. Not that anyone should start a telethon for Ohtani, but it’s truly amazing to see just how much of his yearly $70 million will end up in his pocket.

6. There are two episodes of SI Media With Jimmy Traina for your listening pleasure.

First up was ESPN football analyst Booger McFarland, who discussed the college football playoff, FSU’s snub, his Michigan-Alabama and Texas-Washington predictions, his time on Monday Night Football and much more.

WWE superstar Seth Rollins also joined SI Media With Jimmy Traina last week. Rollins talked about his viral reaction to CM Punk’s WWE return, why he dislikes Punk, his issues with Roman Reigns, his love of the Chicago Bears and much more.

You can also listen to SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify and Google.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Many thanks to Twitter follower @pnmama for sending this over to me.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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