The referees didn’t make many friends at Arrowhead Stadium during Monday’s game between the Las Vegas Raiders and Kansas Chiefs when they called a controversial roughing the passer penalty on Kansas City’s Chris Jones. Later in the game, at least one of the referees appeared to be quite terrified.
Las Vegas’ first offensive possession of the second half resulted in a three-and-out. On the punt, a penalty flag was thrown. The officials decided to waive the flag off. Head referee Carl Cheffers then announced, “There is no foul on the play for a block in the back. Time Out.”
But while Cheffers was making an announcement beneficial to the hometown Chiefs, he seemed absolutely terrified. Either that or his voice cracked at the absolute wrong moment.
The NFL world had a lot of fun with Cheffers, a 62-year-old man, sounding like a 13-year-old boy going through puberty.
There’s some good news for Cheffers here. If for whatever reason he ends up losing his job as an NFL referee, he may be able to get cast with The Simpsons, replacing Dan Castellaneta as the voice of Jeremy Freedman, the pimply-faced teen with the squeaky voice.
Close your eyes and see if you can tell the two apart.