Week 9, 2025
Tipped Mahomes pass was not reviewable and did not eliminate intentional grounding
A tipped pass does not automatically negate an intentional grounding call.
In the middle of the third quarter, officials penalized Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes for intentional grounding. Initially, the pass was ruled as simply an incomplete pass, but after a crew discussion — intentional grounding is a crew call — referee Carl Cheffers dropped his flag.
Mahomes initially argued that his arm was hit while he was throwing the ball, but it was not. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid threw his challenge flag and argued the ball was actually tipped, requesting replay to review the play. Cheffers denied Reid’s replay request because he indicated that there were no reviewable elements of the play. (Because there was some confusion over what was reviewable, Cheffers allowed Reid to pick up his flag without charging a timeout and a failed challenge.)
There is a lot to unpack with this play, and as Gene Steratore noted on the broadcast, it was a situation he had never seen before in his years of officiating or working as a rules analyst. First, broadcast replays showed that a defensive lineman did tip the pass as it was in flight. This is not in dispute. However, unlike defensive pass interference, where there can be no foul, by rule, on a tipped pass, intentional grounding has no such stipulation. Officials typically give the quarterback the benefit of the doubt with intentional grounding of tipped passes, but it is still a judgement call by the crew. Below, you can see a summary of the intentional grounding, under Rule 8-2-1, condensed to the relevant parts:
It is a foul for intentional grounding if a passer, facing an imminent loss of yardage because of pressure from the defense, throws a forward pass that is not in the direction and vicinity of an originally eligible offensive receiver. … Intentional grounding should not be called if … the passer initiates his passing motion toward an eligible receiver and then is significantly affected by physical contact from a defensive player that causes the pass to land in an area that is not in the direction and vicinity of an eligible receiver.
While the rule mentions physical contact as a consideration, it does not specifically mention a tipped pass being a factor. This is why replay can review for a tipped pass on a defensive pass interference call but cannot review for a tipped pass on an intentional grounding call. Replay can only review three aspects of an intentional grounding call: (1) where the pass landed, (2) whether the quarterback was in the pocket, or (3) the spot the pass was released from to establish the spot of the foul. Because the effect of the ball being tipped is still a judgement call, replay can’t and shouldn’t get involved.
The ultimate question is, did the tip affect the pass enough that the ball would have otherwise landed in the area of a receiver? I’d argue it did not. The closest receiver to the pass was running a deep route and only stopped his route when the whistle blew after the pass hit the ground.
If the ball wasn’t tipped, it likely would not have landed near an eligible receiver because the bottom receiver would have continued his route. The point of the intentional grounding rule is to reward the defense and to keep quarterbacks from throwing the ball away when under duress to avoid a sack. It is clear that this is what Mahomes was doing, and in a league where most of the rules favor the offense, this seems like it was a just decision.
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Anonymous
November 2, 2025 at 9:19 pm
You should be looking at Rule 15-2-3 regarding replays rather than Rule 8-2-1 for Intentional Grounding. This rule explicitly states that a tipped forward pass is reviewable, and no there are no qualifications as to how that is applied. So, to say that it is not reviewable is incorrect. It appears that the officials were saying that they could not review it for being tipped rather than that it was tipped (I didn’t see any official gesturing a tipped pass, did they?). If there is any subjectivity applied from there, it would be up to the officials to make the determination from the review. However, the fact that they denied the challenge flag while discussing the challenge and then telling Reid that the play was not reviewable only underscores that they were not following the NFL rules that explicitly state otherwise.
Anonymous
November 2, 2025 at 9:20 pm
There was actually a receiver on a crossing route heading right where Mahomes was throwing before it was tipped. (not the receiver on the sidelines that you mentioned). Look at the video again. As Steratore mentioned, that should be reviewable if it isn’t. I don’t think they saw the tip, but it was definitely the wrong call. With two receivers on that side Mahomes is smart enough to aim for one of them, and he did.
Anonymous
November 3, 2025 at 10:47 am
This is such an obvious attempt to hide that Cheffers officiating is counter-productive to the game. You all should be ashamed of yourselves for not immediately stating that as a judgement call it should have never been flagged in the first place. Professional level referees should have a greater capability than this and quoting rules that actually highlight the lack of perception only makes it clear how much of a shill this is.
Anonymous
November 3, 2025 at 12:48 pm
By the logic of this article, every single ball that is batted down at the line with no eligible receivers in the area should be intentional grounding. While the rule doesn’t explicitly state a tipped ball does not constitute intentional grounding, its clear physical contact on the ball from a defensive player can negate intentional grounding. IE Batted down balls at the line.
Anonymous
November 3, 2025 at 4:52 pm
This is an incredibly dumb troll post, kudos! Mahomes was clearly throwing to a receiver and the ball was tipped, and the referees missed that tip because they are very bad at their job. It wasn’t a broken clock situation.
Anonymous
November 3, 2025 at 6:14 pm
I very much agree with these 5 comments
Anonymous
November 3, 2025 at 6:18 pm
Chris seubert doesnt know football.
Unbiased Observation
November 4, 2025 at 4:41 am
The author of this article needs to go and rewatch the gamefilm. the camera angle from behind the QB, it is clearly observable that there was an intended and eligible receiver that Mahomes was throwing to, you can even see the trajectory with Mahomes velocity was headed there until the tip deflected it to wobble into your cherry picked circle.
Anonymous
November 4, 2025 at 9:09 pm
Author is clueless. Definitely adding footballzebras to my list of “never visit websites unless I want to see comedy”.
Anonymous
November 4, 2025 at 9:16 pm
This article is so ridiculously bad, and lacks any comprehension of the NFL rulebook. I regret spending time on this site and will make sure I don’t waste any of my time here going forward. 3 puppies died somewhere because of this atrocity.
Anonymous
November 5, 2025 at 7:48 am
Is this the same commenter ten times over? Watching the game live, it looked as though there was no receiver in the area and I think this analysis shows that it’s a reasonably open and shut case. If qb’s were able to avoid intentional grounding calls merely by defenders touching the ball, they would throw their passes into defenders whilst being taken down. There were no receivers even remotely close to where the ball was headed before or after it was being tipped.
Anonymous
November 5, 2025 at 11:33 am
This author clearly didn’t watch all angles of the play. There was a receiver on a crossing route from the back side view. Mahomes clearly was throwing directly at him and the ball was tipped so it missed it’s mark. Both rulings 15-2-3 and 8-2-1 clearly make this call a bad call. Cheffers is a dirty ref and has made many questionable calls on many teams through the years, I would be taking a peak into his financials.