As per a source, the longtime NFL referee Jeff Triplette is retiring. The news came in on Sunday morning soon after Triplette’s performance in the Tennessee Titan’s 22-21 win over the Kansas City Chiefs, which included a few disputed calls that made the Chief fans angry. One of the issues that the fans had includes him blowing the whistle early on a second-quarter play where the Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota fumbled before he hit the ground due to which the Chiefs recovered the ball. As the play was blown dead, Tennessee retained its possession and scored on a 49-yard field goal on the next play.
Mike Pereira, former NFL VP of officiating wrote on his Twitter handle, “Horrible way to start the playoffs. I hate to say it, but this was not a good performance by the crew. Teams and fans deserve better.”
The other issue points out towards a penalty that was called on Tennessee’s No. 11. The Titan’s did not have a No. 11 player in uniform as the backup quarterback Alex Tanney, who wears that number uniform, is on an injured reserve basis. So they badly miss spotted the ball on a Tennessee first down which forced the Titans to challenge the spot.
Triplette is a veteran of the US Army and in the year 1996, joined the NFL league field judge. Since the year 1999, he served as a referee and has been one of the most recognizable names in the officiating. He has also been a part of many high-profile incidents that includes blinding the Browns offensive lineman Orlando Brown in 1999 by throwing a penalty flag.
This season was Triplette’s ninth playoff officiated and the first since the year 2013. It looks pretty coincidental that Triplette would get to play in a playoff game for his final assignment even though he failed to grade well enough in the earlier three seasons to earn another playoff.
