With Super Bowl LIX about to take place, people across the football world continue to talk about the favorable officiating the Kansas City Chiefs may have gotten and the idea that their games have been influenced by referees and the NFL.
The Chiefs are going for an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl championship against the Philadelphia Eagles, the team they defeated two years ago in the big game, and they have won an unusually large number of one-score games by the skin of their teeth.
The executive director of the NFL Referees Association, the labor union that represents NFL officials, had some strong words to describe the supposed issues everyone has been talking about.
“Officiating crews do not work the same team more than twice each regular season. It is insulting and preposterous to hear conspiracy theories that somehow 17 officiating crews consisting of 138 officials are colluding to assist one team,” Scott Green said, via Pro Football Talk.
The union representing NFL officials attacks "conspiracy theories" regarding favoritism for the Chiefs as "preposterous" and "insulting." https://t.co/58iEDwBYD6
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) February 5, 2025
On a practical level, it would be very difficult for any major sports league to pull off such a conspiracy, especially given the fact there would likely be at least one leak that would tip its hand.
The risk also is not worth it, as such a revelation would stain that league’s brand and reputation for decades.
Critics have charged that Kansas City regularly gets away with penalties that aren’t called, especially holding penalties, while opposing teams are flagged for questionable infractions, namely roughing the passer on Patrick Mahomes.
In another example from the most recent AFC Championship Game, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen dove over the pile on a fourth down attempt in the fourth quarter and appeared to cross the plane of the first down marker, but after an official replay review, the initial ruling that he didn’t gain the crucial first down was upheld.
Now, all eyes will be on the officials assigned to Super Bowl LIX to see how they call things on the field.
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