NFL issues apology to Titans that could keep rookie Chimere Dike out of the record books
The NFL confirmed a missed call that ruined an electric play.
One of the only bright spots for the 2025 Tennessee Titans is rookie Chimere Dike. The WR/returner has been a revelation of a fourth-round pick so far and is well on his way to getting award recognition for being the best returner in the league this year.
In Week 13, practically nothing went right for the Titans in their 25-3 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Even on the one play that felt like it would break Tennessee’s way, a blatant penalty kept Dike from housing his third punt return touchdown of the season. To make matters worse, the officials missed the obvious call. And the NFL knows it.
Chimere Dike was illegally tripped by Jaguars punter on historic return
Take a look for yourself. Down 25-3 already by the beginning of the fourth quarter, Dike fielded the punt and returned it 47 yards before getting leg-whipped by punter Logan Cooke. Had it not been for this spinning kick to the torso, Dike would’ve been gone.
Titans’ Special Teams Coordinator John Fassel told the media at his Tuesday presser that he turned the play into the league office for review, and it agreed it was a missed tripping penalty.
Cooke was a controversial figure all day in this game, infamously getting into a fight on a different punt with Titans RB Julius Chestnut and telling him that he was going to kill him. This wasn’t a serious death threat, of course, but it sure is a crazy piece of smack talk to hear from the punter of all people.
This is the NFL’s M.O. on these things. It never openly admits fault, but it’ll tell teams privately when they screwed them over behind the scenes. It takes coaches like Bones coming out and being willing to say what was decided privately for the public to get vindication like this.
This one really stings for two reasons: first, the penalty was as obvious as it gets. And second, it would’ve put Dike in the history books. Another return touchdown would’ve made him the only player in franchise history to notch more than three, not named Billy Johnson (in the 70’s and 80’s in Houston) or Adam “Pac-Man” Jones. They had five and four, respectively, but that was in their whole careers. Dike is doing it all in a single season right now — as a rookie — and a third would have tied him with Johnson and Jones for the single-season record.
With five games left, here’s to hoping Dike gets another shot at etching his name in the history books.