True as you and others say - Toney was offsides - not by a little, but a lot.
Also true - the call, isolated form context, is legit. The guy was inarguably offsides.
But how many times, watching just ahandful of televised games per season, have I sen players on offense lined up with what appears to me to be a foot clearly ahead of the point of the ball?
And on how many snaps does the center put a hand on the ball, and move it forward at an angle, just past the position of the spot?
It happens a lot.
As far as Mahomes saying he's never seen it called in his 7 seasons, that's not neccessarily a deflecting or unreasonable claim. 32 teams play 17 games/season = 272 games, out of which, to date eleven offensive offsides has been called have been called this season. Citing the number of offsides this season doesn't doen't neccessarily throw shade at Mahomes claim - but I suspect that was somebody's intent.
To press into our examination of the facts a littl further, if we could we should ask: On how many of these calls was the team pre-warned, as both Ried and Mahomes cite as protocol?
Mahomes, to simplify our math to regular season games only at the 17 game rate has played a max of 119 games. Less, when you adjust for his 16 game seasons. That's less than half the games played so far in the 2023 season. His gripe at this point seems legitimate.
Moreover, his overview needs to be heard loud and clear, and coming from a player of his stature (Sorry, Classical, don't wince
) just might resonate withthe league.
Mahomes biggest beef is that selective officiating, shall we call it, is throwing the outcome of games at an increasing rate and leaving us, at the end of too many games, not talking about the exciting plays that we watch the games to see, but the officiating.
And I'm 100 % with him on that.