“Delusional”: Shannon Sharpe’s Explosive Rant on Troy Aikman as ESPN Announcer Throws NFL Refs Under the Bus

With Super Bowl LIX around the corner—don’t you feel everyone should be talking about the excitement surrounding the clash? Like that’s the game football fans eagerly wait for all year round. However, this time, the subject isn’t the Super Bowl. It’s the referees who have found themselves at the center of discussions. Because of their constant controversial decisions, even NFL legends like Troy Aikman have had enough of inconsistency from the league’s officiating body. But it seems Aikman doesn’t have the support of someone whose views don’t align with him.

Hopping on SI Media with Jimmy Traina, Aikman voiced his frustration with referees constantly fumbling their decisions. “I know the officials have a tough job. I mean, the scrutiny that they’re under. As we’ve gotten more advanced with instant replay, those guys, it seems have become more and more scrutinized.” See, there were two instances where even those instant replays probably didn’t do justice to certain calls. One was Josh Allen’s failed QB sneak in the 4th quarter against the Chiefs. And the other was Xavier Worthy’s catch that looked like an interception from Bills safety Cole Bishop.

Those decisions show how inconsistent the referees have been truly this postseason. However, Shannon Sharpe, on his Night Cap Podcast, believes calling out the officials isn’t right. Instead, he even called everyone ‘delusional’ to think that the referees would get all decisions right, “If we think for one second that every official in every sport is going to get every call right. It’s delusional. Yeah that’s impossible. And guys and athletes that have played the game, they’re delusional because now they’re pandering.”

Well, Aikman, who once used to be a QB himself, has been quite open in recent games about commenting on controversial decisions. Remember the Chiefs vs. Texans clash? There was a moment in the third quarter when Will Anderson was penalized for roughing the passer against Patrick Mahomes. That call left Aikman questioning the referees’ decision, “Oh, come on! I mean, he’s a runner. I could not disagree with that one more. And he barely gets hit.” Looking back at the footage, anyone will probably agree with Aikman. When Mahomes was running with the ball, two Texans defenders ended up colliding against each other.

There was minimal contact with the Chiefs QB. But still, he got a favorable call that left Aikman fuming. Now, the Cowboys legend hasn’t stopped going after questioning the league officials. He also pointed out how those decisions disrupt the gamblers out there.

Troy Aikman puts the NFL on notice to sort out their controversial calls

Aikman didn’t just question the NFL on how they just don’t use their technology to its full potential. In that interview with Jimmy Traina, he also pointed out a major concern related to gamblers. “I just think that we’re at a point that this has tipped a little bit because the league is partners with a number of these gambling services. Here you are promoting gambling—people are gambling more than they ever have before and those types of calls—there’s a lot at stake regardless.” Like all Aikman wants right now, alongside the millions of NFL fans globally is to fix this issue once and for all.

“I think that we owe it to the fans that we get it right. And I think we’re at a point in time where we can.” Well, Sharpe, for one, disagrees with Aikman’s take about gamblers losing money. In his Night Cap Podcast, he basically said no matter how well the NFL officiates its game. There will still be flaws, “Troy knows damn well people gambled on the games when he played, yeah they didn’t get every call right it’s impossible. There’s no such thing as we got every call right in the game. I guarantee you there are calls that you like, man that was a very well-officiated game. The NFL can go back and say you missed that holding call. You missed that tripping call.”

Like for example, last year’s Super Bowl was considered well-officiated. However, fans still question its integrity, pointing out multiple holding calls that went unnoticed. So, yeah, maybe whatever happens, fingers will still be raised on the NFL’s officiating. But, surely, they need to do something, at least for the fans. Because no one really wants their franchise to fall victim to poor officiating in their biggest game of the season.