Paige Spiranac’s Pittsburgh Steelers may have squeaked away with a win on Monday night, but even she was appalled by the officiating.
Taking to Twitter, the golf influencer weighed in on the Steelers’ showdown against the Bears on “Monday Night Football,” which was littered with questionable calls. In the fourth quarter, Bears linebacker Cassius Marsh was flagged for taunting following a sack, in which he appeared to glance at the Pittsburgh sideline from a distance after the fact. As Marsh made his way back to Chicago’s sideline, cameras also caught the moment when he and referee Tony Corrente made contact, with the ref throwing a flag immediately after.
Spiranac then shared the incident between Marsh and Corrente with her nearly 483,000 followers, tweeting: “I mean come on.” She immediately followed up with, “As a Steelers fan even I can admit the refs are trash tonight.”
Spiranac’s criticism of the refs was then echoed by a chorus of football fans.
“They’ve been trash both sides, but as a Chicago fan, I’ve seen so many calls go against us alllll game..,” one user tweeted
while another added, “Yeah them refs were definitely trash and I’m a Steelers fan as well.”
After the Steelers defeated the Bears, 29-27, Corrente was asked about his controversial penalty call against Marsh.
“First of all, keep in mind that taunting is a point of emphasis this year,” Corrente said, according to NBC Sports Chicago. “And with that said, I saw the player, after he made a big play, run toward the bench area of the Pittsburgh Steelers and posture in such a way that I felt he was taunting them.”
When asked if his contact with Marsh contributed to the flag, Corrente replied: “No, not at all. I didn’t judge that as anything that I dealt with.”
Marsh, who joined the Bears this month after signing with the Steelers late last year, said he found Corrente’s alleged “hip-check” to be “incredibly inappropriate.”
“On my way to the sideline, I got hip-checked by the ref. It’s pretty clear,” Marsh said post-game, per ESPN. “If I was to do that to a ref or even touch a ref, we get kicked out of the game and possibly suspended and fined. I just think that that was incredibly inappropriate.”