Frank Clark’s fourth-quarter late hit of Joe Burrow not called

On Jan 31, 2023

With about nine minutes remaining in Sunday’s AFC championship between Kansas City and Cincinnati, Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark appeared to take an extra three or four steps and push Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow to the ground after Burrow released a pass he completed to Trenton Irwin.

Burrow reacted by holding out his hands and looking at an official in disbelief. No penalty was called against Clark.

“You see a little tough love right there from Frank Clark to his buddy Joe Burrow,” CBS analyst Tony Romo said during the broadcast.

Social media reactions from some suggested that Clark’s hit of Burrow was more than just “a little tough love”:

You can’t call the late hit on Mahomes after you ignored the late hit on Burrow a few mins earlier. Those refs were horrible. They weren’t even fishy-bad more completely-incompetent-bad. Great work @NFL.

— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) January 30, 2023

I mean, no Chiefs fan who is feeling super righteous about the letter of the law wants to go back and litigate the play where Frank Clark shoved Burrow a full two seconds after he released the ball. Lot of truly bad officiating tonight!

— Kevin Van Valkenburg (@KVanValkenburg) January 30, 2023

These NFL officials are making women’s college basketball officials look competent – and that’s hard to do.

That was a roughing call on Burrow in 99 out of 100 NFL games I’ve watched this season.

Plus, they let 15 seconds go off the clock before spotting it on the play before.

— Jody Demling (@jdemling) January 30, 2023

Frank Clark takes three steps here after Joe Burrow releases the ball.

This was as blatant as the Ossai hit and wasn’t called.

I hate complaining about officiating. It isn’t fun. But you can’t deny tonight’s crew’s incompetence impacted the game.
pic.twitter.com/jYWBAGYXJm

— Matt Edwards (@MattEdwards) January 30, 2023

Frank Clark gets a hit on Burrow off of a great stunt and Burrow begs for a flag he won’t get.

The officiating in this contest is questionable to say the least.

— PJ Green (@PJGreenTV) January 30, 2023

Last thing I’ll tweet about the refs for this game, but come on man 😭😭😭 Clark had way more chance to stop or avoid Burrow than Ossai did, if this were Mahomes or Brady this is getting called 10/10 times. https://t.co/viVkSJiv3R

— 💕:): (@ImHuski) January 30, 2023

Clark just hits Burrow well after the play and nothing 😂😂😂😂

— Michael Boston (@michaelkboston) January 30, 2023

The late hit on Burrow was worse than Ossai’s forearm out of bounds. Mahomes flopped, and only one was called.

The officiating was a joke on the biggest stage. Unbelievable.

— Matt Chinn (@THE_CHINN) January 30, 2023

I really need to commend the refs + chiefs on defeating the bengals tonight, a job well done. Without the redo on the 3rd down conversion, that missed late hit on burrow, and multiple bogus penalties, they never could’ve done it. #Flyeaglesfly https://t.co/bjpTXPj0jr

— Colton (@_coltonf_) January 30, 2023

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Frank Clark’s fourth-quarter late hit of Joe Burrow not called

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