The Baltimore Ravens were one 2-point conversion away from knocking off the Kansas City Chiefs on the road to kick off the NFL season, as Lamar Jackson found Isaiah Likely in the back of the end zone for a touchdown as time expired. Instant replay, however, had other ideas, as it was determined that Likely’s toe was out of bounds, thereby giving Kansas City a 27-20 win as they start their quest for a third Super Bowl in a row.
It was a heartbreaker for Baltimore, which had the Chiefs on the ropes but could not land the knockout blow in the game’s waning moments — making matters worse was that Jackson missed two throws in the two plays preceding the final play of the game that would have been touchdowns. And in the immediate aftermath of the game, a team that knows better than anyone else in all of sports about how a toe can change your fortunes responded to the way things ended.
“Game of inches,” the Milwaukee Bucks tweeted with a sneaker emoji.
The Bucks, of course, won an NBA championship in 2021 in large part because Kevin Durant’s sneaker was a little too big. Durant and the Nets nearly took down the Bucks in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals in Brooklyn that year, but KD’s jumper in the waning moments of regulation tied the game because his toe was on the line — Durant famously likes to wear his sneakers up a size. As for whether he sees similarities between that moment and Likely’s near-touchdown, well, he hasn’t tweeted anything, so we don’t know for sure.