NBC commentator Mike Tirico stirred the wrath of Detroit Lions fans by suggesting that Thursday night’s 21-20 victory over the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs was somehow tainted by the absence of two Kansas City stalwarts.

“This comes with an asterisk due to the absence of Chris Jones and Travis Kelce,” Tirico said, igniting anger among Lions fans and others.

Jones had been expected to miss the game due to a contract dispute. Kelce had been questionable since hyperextending his knee Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

Sports Illustrated described Kelce’s injury as a bone bruise.

“It wasn’t feeling right. I wasn’t going to put him out there with that, and he was honest with me,”  Chiefs coach Andy Reid said, according to AP.

But their absence was no reason to downplay Detroit’s achievement, irate fans posted, with one posting, “I’m sick.”

Some noted that Tirico’s comment was especially stinging because the broadcaster has “Michigan ties,” Sports Illustrated noted.

Kory Woods, for example, commented, “Mike Tirico saying this #Lions [win] has an asterisk next to it is probably not going to go over well with Michiganders when he returns to the state.”

Detroit coach Dan Campbell said after the game that the Lions are “a resilient team. We’re built to handle some stuff,” according to AP.

“We expected to win this game. We came in here, knew what we needed to do, knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and we did that. We won,” Campbell said.

The Lions started slowly last year, but won eight of their final 10 games.

Quarterback Jared Goff threw for 253 yards with one touchdown en route to the victory.

“A lot of work has been put in this offseason,” Goff said, “and you want to start off winning the first one, and we did that today. We didn’t play the best on offense, I thought the defense kept us in the game, but we found a way.”

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who wound up the team’s top rusher for the game, said it simply when the game was done.

“Got to be better,” Mahomes said.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.