‘It was holding’: Eagles’ Bradberry has no issue with controversial Super Bowl call

A questionable late penalty on Philadelphia Eagles cornerback James Bradberry caused plenty of anger among NFL fans but the player himself had no complaints about the call.

Kansas City won their second Super Bowl in four years by beating the Eagles 38-35. It was an exciting back-and-forth game that saw the Chiefs claw back from a 10-point halftime deficit. But one of the few gripes for football fans — particularly Eagles fans — was the anticlimactic finish.

The Chiefs were driving and faced 3rd-and-8 at the Eagles 15-yard line with 1:54 remaining when Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw incomplete to JuJu Smith-Schuster. But officials flagged Bradberry for defensive holding, which negated the incompletion and, more importantly, gave the Chiefs a first down.

Replays showed that Bradberry made light contact with Smith-Schuster, but it didn’t appear to affect the play. Still, the cornerback said he wasn’t upset at officials for the call.

“It was a holding. I tugged his jersey,” Bradberry said. “I was hoping they would let it slide.”

Referee Carl Cheffers explained the call after the game. “The receiver went to the inside and he was attempting to release to the outside,” he said. “The defender grabbed the jersey with his right hand and restricted him from releasing to the outside. So, therefore, we called defensive holding.”

Kansas City were able to essentially run out the clock from that point forward. Chiefs running back Jerick McKinnon made a smart move on the ensuing down, purposefully sliding two yards short of the goalline instead of scoring a touchdown. Mahomes then was able to kneel twice as the clock ran down after the Eagles used their final timeout. Harrison Butker kicked a 27yard field goal with eight seconds remaining that proved to be the winner.

Bradberry did not shy away from questions about the penalty after the game, speaking in-depth with reporters.

“He’s an awesome teammate, he’s a great player, and I think that’s how you want your teammates and your guys to react,” Eagles center Jason Kelce said. “We all had our mistakes today. I had mine. It was just unfortunately a few too many.”