Does Mahomes really get preferential treatment from officials?

[B-Man]

 

 

Didn't really want to start a new thread.

 

So this happened recently.

 

 

NFL fires three officials in ‘accountability’ crackdown

By Matt Ehalt

 

The NFL appears to be cracking down on shoddy refereeing.

 

The league fired three officials in what footballzebras.com described as vice president of officiating training and development Ramon George “advancing accountability among the officiating ranks,” following a postseason that included several notable referee controversies.

 

In a deviation from normal standards, though, the referees received soft landings, being sent to college football power conferences due to George’s maneuvering, per the report.

Dismissed officials reportedly had no such landing spot previously.

 

The NFL moved on from second-year umpire James Carter, third-year line judge Robin DeLorenzo and first-year down judge Robert Richardson, according to the report.

 

Carter served as an alternate official during the wild-card round this past season, with footballzebras.com speculating it may have been due to injuries, while DeLorenzo did not earn any postseason assignments and Richardson could not referee in the postseason due to his freshman status.

 

These moves come as George has pushed for using “data as a performance guide,” a source told the outlet.

 

“The culture is changing, it’s changing rapidly,” one official told footballzebras.com. “It’s changing into a competitive environment where everybody’s equal. There are no favorites. There’s no favoritism. There’s none of that; it’s all about performance.”

 

The article did not mention any specific issues with this trio, but NFL refereeing came under the microscope this year, particularly regarding perceived bias toward the Chiefs.

 

The Chiefs benefitted from several questionable calls against the Texans in the divisional round before receiving a generous spot on what proved to be a game-changing fourth-down stop against the Bills in the AFC Championship game.

 

More at https://nypost.com/2025/04/10/sports/nfl-fires-three-officials-in-accountability-crackdown/

 

https://www.footballzebras.com/2025/04/nfl-relegates-3-officials-to-work-in-college-conferences/

 

 

[folz]

1 hour ago, B-Man said:

NFL fires three officials in ‘accountability’ crackdown

By Matt Ehalt

 

The NFL moved on from second-year umpire James Carter, third-year line judge Robin DeLorenzo and first-year down judge Robert Richardson, according to the report.

 

 

Thanks NFL. I'm sure that will solve the problem, sacking a 1st-year, 2nd-year, and 3rd-year ref, none of whom reffed in the post-season. 

 

Now, these guys are all young in their careers, so maybe they do need more experience (weren't quite ready for the NFL/made mistakes), but I hope the NFL isn't doing this, putting this out there to try and convince us that they have somehow solved the ref problem or at least are actually trying to do so. The problems with NFL reffing goes back a lot further than three years and has little to do with inexperienced referees. The change needs to happen at the top, not the bottom.

 

Edited Thursday at 06:52 PM by folz

[PromoTheRobot]

Does Josh Allen? I'd say yes most of the time.

[The Red King]

[HOUSE]

No preferential treatment, he is just lucky

[Utah John]

The three demoted officials are second-year umpire James Carter, third-year line judge Robin DeLorenzo, and first-year down judge Robert Richeson.  

 

I went through the box scores for all the Chiefs games in 2024.  I found them on the ESPN site, and all the officials were listed except for the Week 9 game when the Chiefs beat the Buccaneers.  With the exception of that game, I found that each of the three demoted officials worked one Chiefs game apiece.  Robert Richeson worked the Week 2 game where the Chiefs beat the Bengals 26-25.  Robin DeLorenzo worked the Week 12 game where the Chiefs beat the Panthers 30-27.  James Carter worked the Week 13 game where the Chiefs beat the Raiders 19-17.  

 

The result of all this is that the demoted officials had only a limited opportunity to help the Chiefs.  However all three of the games I mentioned were very close (total point differential:6). So who knows whether there's any correlation.  

nfl officials 2024.xlsx