Referees grant Chiefs timeout that confused everyone in NFL season opener: ‘Can’t do that’

For football fans looking to claim the NFL favors the Chiefs, they were potentially handed a gift during the season opener between the Chiefs and Ravens — or so cameras seemed to indicate.

During a potentially crucial moment in the closing moments of the first half, Chiefs defensive coordinator ​​Steve Spagnuolo was allowed to call a timeout as the Kansas City defense looked as though it was caught flatfooted, even though the stoppage never should’ve been granted. 

Only a head coach is allowed to signal a timeout during the game, but the official granted the pause in the action to Spagnuolo, who almost immediately realized he wasn’t allowed to do that. 

“He can’t do that. It has to be the head coach to come down. Nobody else can call a timeout on the sidelines except the head coach,” NBC rule analyst Terry McAulay said on the broadcast. 

Spagnuolo quickly went back to Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and appeared to apologize, and the broadcast seemed to catch the defensive coach getting a tongue-lashing from one of the officials. 

NBC’s Mike Tirico noted that the official “in the back corner” was the one that granted the timeout. 

The Kansas City Star’s Sam McDowell wrote on X that it may have been Reid all along that had been granted the timeout and that the cameras just didn’t catch it. 

“This video doesn’t provide the full context. Andy Reid called timeout first. The judge at the back pylon noticed Reid, and gave it to him,” McDowell wrote. “Spags didn’t spot that, and because the near ref had not seen Reid’s TO, Spags raced in, as seen here. But timeout had already been granted.”

Whatever the case may be, the Chiefs did benefit from the timeout call as they were able to regroup defensively and hold the Ravens to just a field goal before the end of the first half.