Veteran Minnesota Vikings WR Adam Thielen drew headlines on Friday for his comments on the NFL’s officiating problem. After being called for a crucial penalty in a key situation in the Vikings’ loss to the Ravens last week, Thielen was hot on the sideline, letting the refs know how he felt, as well as his coaches and teammates. Anyone who was within earshot, really.
“I think we need to have full-time referees,” Thielen said on KFAN’s The Power Trip Morning Show, when asked about the state of officiating in the NFL. “I think it’s ridiculous that — and no offense to these guys, I mean they obviously love their job, and they put a lot of time into it, I know they do. But we have these guys that are kind of ‘fanboys’ a little bit.”
“They love the fact that they get to go out there and get to shake hands with Patrick Mahomes, they get to hang out with these professional athletes. And then they go to their real job on Monday through Friday and they get to tell everyone how cool their side job is. I think that there should be full-time referees.”
“I mean, the NFL is [worth] billions and billions of dollars,” Thielen continued. “There’s so much money in the game, there’s so much betting on the game. These games means so much, not just to the people who are gambling, but what about the people that are putting in so much time and effort to try and go out and perform well and win games. And all the time the coaches put in — they deserve to have full-time referees. That’s my take on it. I think it’s very easy to do and I don’t know why it hasn’t been done.”
Minnesota Vikings WR Adam Thielen on Why He was so Frustrated
Stephen Maturen/GettyMINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – SEPTEMBER 14: Head coach Kevin O’Connell of the Minnesota Vikings talks with Adam Thielen #19 before the game against the Atlanta Falcons at U.S. Bank Stadium on September 14, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
“Yeah, I think the reason why I was probably so fired up was because we’d talked about that exact play all week,” Thielen said on the penalty in question. “We actually practiced that exact look in practice. Like, ‘This is probably what we’ll get and this is what we want you to do.’”
“And so I had a pretty good idea of what the rule was: that if you’re on the line of scrimmage, or within a yard of the line of scrimmage, that you can actually hit ’em. That you can actually block them. And it’s not pass interference, because if it’s past one yard from the line of scrimmage, then it’s pass interference if you touch them. …And I think the shock of him not seeing me actually made it look worse than it really was. Because I didn’t really hit him that hard.”
Of course, Thielen wasn’t called for offensive pass interference. He was called for an illegal crack-back block, where an offensive player outside the tackle box blocks back towards their own end zone. This type of play was ruled a 15-yard penalty several years ago due to its high propensity for injury.
Minnesota Vikings WR Adam Thielen on Physicality in the NFL
“I think the frustration with these refs — I think they sometimes just forget that we’re playing football,” Theielen said. “And yes, there’s rules, but I think they sometimes forget the feel of the game. Was that really malicious in intent? Did I hit him in the head? No.”
“So I think they just sometimes forget like, yes there’s a rulebook, you can’t crack back, you can’t do these things. But what does it look like in football, and how does it apply to a real, full-speed rep? And so that’s why I think I was so frustrated. I think some of what they were saying back to me made me a little more frustrated, I don’t think they really understood the rule. So, interesting play. Obviously I can’t do that, I apologized to the ref after the game. And he said he needed to get more clarification on the rule. So, all good.”
Thielen made sure to apologize to the official for his outburst after the game, but he notes in this interview that he wants referees to account for game flow and natural physicality more in their calls. An interesting approach, given how much more subjectivity would be involved in such a process.
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