Saturday’s 27-19 win by the Chiefs (14-1) over the Texans (9-6), combined with their excellent season so far, puts Kansas City in a comfortable position. They only need a win in their last two games of the season (Steelers, Broncos) or a loss by the Bills to secure the top seed in the AFC. If they do so, it will be the third time in the last five years that they have done so, ensuring that the AFC playoffs will go through Kansas City. The Chiefs have also won 20 of their last 21 games dating back to last season, and for the third time in franchise history, have posted 14 wins in a single season, all during the Patrick Mahomes era, so yes, the first three-peat ever is headed in the right direction.
Are Referee Calls Favoring the Chiefs? Let’s Break It Down
When a team has as many years of success as the Chiefs have had since acquiring Mahomes, questions and controversies about officiating inevitably arise. It happened for years with Tom Brady and the Patriots, and now it is happening with Mahomes and the Chiefs. Because they are constantly in the spotlight – with or without Taylor Swift attending their games – the Chiefs are more exposed to these complaints than other teams. They are so much in the spotlight that with their next game this Wednesday, the Chiefs will have played every day of the week except Tuesday, something that has never happened in the NFL. The league knows the attention they generate, the marketing machine they are, and that’s why they’re featured in so many prime-time games. But it’s also why fans of other teams constantly complain about officiating favors. It’s natural for someone to find questionable calls in the Chiefs’ or any team’s games after thousands of plays this season.
Take the first clip of the video, for example, where a ball boy alerts the referee that a coach wants to call a timeout, and people thought the ball boy called the timeout himself. All he did was alert the referee and point to the sideline. Is that illegal? Of course not. The young man wants his team to win, so he is paying attention to the game, but he did absolutely nothing wrong. Yet social media thinks he called the timeout. Please – it didn’t change the course of the game at all. Plus, there were still seven seconds left to snap the ball. I understand that he who seeks finds, but this time it seems excessive to me, do you really think a referee would stop the game because a ball boy tells him?
Chiefs’ Role in NFL Spotlight and Referee Criticism
If these fans scrutinized every other team’s plays the way they do the Chiefs’, we’d probably find plenty of questionable calls. Remember, referees aren’t perfect. To be clear, I’m not defending the Chiefs, but this example with the ball boy shows how people are just trying to stir up controversy. That said, while these officiating mistakes are common throughout the league, there have been more obvious instances involving the Chiefs that have often played a critical role in game outcomes. Let’s take a look at some of the most controversial cases from this season, but those that were important, not just anything the haters put out there.
In this play, it’s clear that #62 of the Chiefs committed holding on a play that ended in a touchdown. It was 4th down, so the Chiefs would have been down 11 points. While there was still the entire second half to play (in which the Broncos didn’t score any points), this play undoubtedly changed the course of the game. This was the same game that ended with a Broncos field goal blocked by the Chiefs. There were also a couple of questionable illegal contact calls that could have gone uncalled – check out the tweet for more details, but remember not to believe everything you see on social media.
To me, the most obvious mistake was the pass interference call on Kyle Pitts in the Week 3 game against Atlanta. The Chiefs player never turns to look at the ball and completely blocks Pitts’ line of sight while making contact long before the ball reaches him. Additionally, a similar situation occurred the week before when a Bengals player interfered with Rashee Rice. Although the penalty against the Bengals was called correctly, the frustration lies in the inconsistency of the officiating. The game against Atlanta should have been a loss for the Chiefs due to the uncalled pass interference, just as it was fair for them to win against the Bengals due to the same penalty.
Refereeing Mistakes Are Inevitable in the NFL
Ultimately, referees make mistakes on both sides, but since the Chiefs have become the “villain” team of the season – the team with the most wins and potentially reaching an unprecedented milestone – it is easier to focus on their games to find mistakes. As I mentioned before, the constant spotlight makes them a prime target for scrutiny. Once Wednesday’s game against the Steelers is over, I have no doubt that more videos of “fans” complaining about officiating calls will surface. As much as we’d like to see a perfect game, it’s impossible to watch an NFL game where the referees don’t make mistakes – they’re human, and sometimes they make really big ones.
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