JuJu Smith-Schuster’s heart is in a savage place on Valentine’s Day.
Eagles defensive back James Bradberry was flagged for holding Smith-Schuster on a call that all but guaranteed Philadelphia would not have time to respond to Kansas City’s go-ahead field goal in Super Bowl 2023 on Sunday night. Two days later, Smith-Schuster fired off a meme for Valentine’s Day referencing the penalty.
Smith-Schuster posted a photo of Bradberry with the Valentine’s note, “I’ll hold you when it matters most.”
A.J. Brown, a star wide receiver on the Eagles, fired back at Smith-Schuster.
“First off congratulations,” Brown tweeted. “Y’all deserve it. This is lame. You was on the way out the league before [Patrick] Mahomes resurrected your career on your 1 year deal Tik-Tok boy. He admitted that he grabbed you but don’t act like your like that or ever was. But congratulations again.”
Bradberry and fellow Eagles cornerback Darius Slay responded.
Smith-Schuster responded to Brown’s tweet.
“Glad you were finally able to get all that off your chest after all these years. Good game bro,” Smith-Schuster wrote, along with a thumbs-up and ring emoji.
The holding call was controversial. It was not a penalty that had been getting called throughout the game, and the stakes of the moment — preventing the Eagles from having any chance to respond in what to that point had been an epic Super Bowl — made a number of observers, including Fox color commentator Greg Olsen, question the decision.
After the game, Carl Cheffers, the NFL’s lead official defended the call.
“The grabbing of the jersey that restricted his free release to the outside,” Cheffers told a pool reporter. “It was a clear case of a jersey grab that caused restriction.”
Bradberry himself admitted that he held Smith-Schuster.
“It was a holding,” Bradberry said in the Eagles’ locker room at State Farm Stadium after the game. “I tugged his jersey. I was hoping they would let it slide.”
