Hard to beat the Chiefs and the refs every post-season

[Doc Brown]

1 hour ago, ToGoGo said:

You’re creating an extreme straw man to not allow the moderate view to enter. 
 

La Nova is owned by he who shall not be named. Yet they’re all over the Bills and Sabres. Why won’t anybody spill the beans?

 

Because institutions are complex.  

It's not an extreme straw man if the belief by some on here is that the NFL is rigging the games for KC to get to the Super Bowl.  How else would you do that?

[Homelander]

15 minutes ago, Doc Brown said:

That's obvious and probable after the Donaghy scandal.  Every ref given the orders by Goodell to rig it for the NFL ratings for Swifties is a bit too much for me though.

 

Agreed. Besides, it's the Super Bowl, there will be numerous celebrities in attendance and people are tired of Taylor Swift.

 

 

[Doc Brown]

1 minute ago, Homelander said:

 

Agreed. Besides, it's the Super Bowl, there will be numerous celebrities in attendance and people are tired of Taylor Swift.

 

 

Maybe the Swifties will get their first Wide Right gut punch and become true NFL fans.

[90sBills]

1 hour ago, Bill from NYC said:

I understand your point, but I'm not exclusively talking about KC covering. I'm saying that the league wanted them in the Super Bowl. Now they are in it and the league will get the extra Taylor Swift fans viewing the game (and the advertisements), so it might not matter as much who wins. 

 

Perhaps I am too cynical. I don't claim to know exactly what is happening. What I do know is that fans across the country (not just Bills Fans) are very suspicious. I'm just posting an opinion.

I hear ya. I don’t think there are any grand conspiracies to favor KC or any other teams. I do think the game is officiated by humans who make mistakes. Especially when those humans are often older men trying to keep up with young elite athletes. When there’s a team like KC (or Pats before them) that keeps winning, there will be resentments that often lead to conspiracies. 
 

I still think the game is officiated as fairly as they can so games will still come down to execution and talent. With that I’m taking Philly. They have the better lines on both sides. So I’m selfishly hoping you’re wrong about it being rigged for KC. lol 

 

Good chat. Cheers!

[Brand J]

Funny thing is, the Raven fan ref that ended up spotting the ball based on his view of Josh’s back, came running in with a spot where the ball couldn’t be. He couldn’t see where Josh was holding it, but it certainly wasn’t a half yard shy of the line to gain. Felt intentionally bad.

[ToGoGo]

8 hours ago, Buffalo716 said:

I honestly wouldn't even start going there bro because you're going to get a message in your inbox from somebody telling you to to be quiet lol and not mention that 

 

I wouldn't even go there my friend

Exactly my point. 
 

But people don’t understand why refs wouldn’t talk. 

[finn]

10 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

So you think over 130 refs that compromise at maximum 17 crews a week are working with Goodell to rig the games for the Chiefs because of the Taylor Swift bump?

I should use these types of comments in my class to teach logical fallacies. Someone says they suspect the game is rigged, and the Straw Men come out in force. My only question is why do you stop at claiming all the refs have to be involved in tipping a close game? Why not go whole hog? "Are you telling me that the entire NFL--all its employees, from Goodell to the janitors--ALL are working with Goodell to rig games? And their families, too? And the media and their families? We're talking nearly a 100 million people here! How could a hundred million people work in such silence to rig the game? It's ludicrous!" Straw Man right back at you. 

[zow2]

I'm going to closely watch in the SB to see how often the refs mark the ball back half yard or a full yard from where it appears the ball *should* be.   Understanding that the ball is marked where the players knee or elbow touches the ground.   

[beebe]

https://www.sportico.com/leagues/football/2025/super-bowl-2025-nfl-refs-kansas-city-chiefs-1234826911/

 

the best article written on chiefs/refs so far. a little something for everyone here. 

 

 

[C.Biscuit97]

People are still crying about the refs? Embarrassing. What about last year? And the year before? And the other 2 times they went to the SB?

 

straight crybaby stuff and hope you raise your kids better than this. Embarrassing look for the rest of the non crybaby bills fans. The refs weren’t the reason we got no pass rush. The refs were the ones who could have had 4 turnovers in the first half. The refs weren’t the ones who got 13 yards on their last drive, 

 

I pray one day the Bills (who have been very, very good) are great enough to have sore loser fans cry about how we get favored by the refs because we win the SB every year. 
 

but yes, the refs are cheating to make the giant metropolis of Kansas City (which is such a stupid place it doesn’t know what state it is) their darling team. Not NYC, not LA, not Chicago, not a Bills- Lions SB which would have set records before the earth exploded. They choose KC. 

[Brand J]

1 hour ago, beebe said:

https://www.sportico.com/leagues/football/2025/super-bowl-2025-nfl-refs-kansas-city-chiefs-1234826911/

 

the best article written on chiefs/refs so far. a little something for everyone here. 

 

 

There were a number of regular season end of game situations this year that were fishy. The Bengals getting a defensive pass interference call on a bang/bang 4th and 16, meanwhile a week later against the Falcons, we get a no-call defensive pass interference against the Chiefs safety in the endzone. Interference that was more noticeable than the bang/bang call a week earlier. A lot of gripes about the Chiefs stem from their postseason favoritism. From the article:

Quote

The stats begin to swing in support of the conspiracy theorists in the playoffs. In the 2023 and 2024 postseasons combined, the Chiefs have been called for 16 fewer penalties for 160 fewer yards than their opponents. Their total win probability gained over those six games is +27%, just behind the Green Bay Packers for tops among all teams.

Quote

In the five postseasons since winning their first ring, the Chiefs have definitely experienced a streak of good fortune. Across 15 playoff games, their opponents have committed 21 more penalties for 144 more yards, and the Chiefs’ cumulative win probability added from plays with penalties has been +45%, more than any other franchise.

Then after the author rationalizes these cases aren’t extreme outliers or signs of anything nefarious…

Quote

Of course, this data analysis is incomplete. The nflfastR win probability model is just that—a model—and does not definitively determine referees’ impact. More generally, looking at penalties alone excludes crucial no-calls and any plays not involving penalties altogether, such as Xavier Worthy’s controversial simultaneous catch in the second quarter of the AFC Championship.

It is indeed the no-calls, the timing of calls, the spots of footballs, all these things that don’t show up in the win probability model, things that we see with our own two eyes that raise eyebrows and draw the ire of fans nationwide.

Quote

One last note on the notion that Mahomes, specifically, gets preferential treatment. His 6.3 roughing-the-passer penalties drawn per 1,000 passing attempts ranks 28th out of 73 qualifying quarterbacks since 2009. This season, he ranked behind Justin Fields. In the playoffs, Mahomes’ rate has indeed escalated to eight flags across 724 passing attempts (11.1 per 1,000), but that sample size is far too small from which to draw any conclusions, and his frequency is still lower than Ryan Fitzpatrick’s over his entire 17-year career (11.4 per 1,000).

This author sounds like he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth, repeatedly dismissing playoff results as small sample sizes, but then agreeing the Chiefs have been the beneficiaries of good fortune when the games count.
 

Quote

Also, just watch the plays. They're almost all no-brainer penalties. 
 

The Chiefs have absolutely gotten some generous breaks from the zebras. But if you suggest that there’s something fishy here, you must also think that Ryan Fitzpatrick and the early-2010s Bengals were the beneficiaries of a conspiracy.

Overall, it reads like an article that was written by a Chiefs fan.

[Negan]

Wish we would have had a little bit better outside contain from our D Ends.... 

 

Hopefully they remember next year, to not let anything outside.  

[stevewin]

22 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

I completely agree.  However, then you get into the slippery slope of all plays cans be reviewed which would severely disrupt game flow. 

If eye in the sky is done properly it doesn't disrupt the flow at all - see an obvious wrong call immediately and call down to the ref to correct it and play is hardly interrupted at all.  The stupid thing that does disrupt the play is ridiculous limited challenges where refs stand there for minutes looking at a tablet - when the eye in the sky and millions of people on their couch see with super slo-mo and multiple angles immediately see obviously wrong calls.

 

I think it is dumb to limit eye in the sky to specific plays - the rule should be any play that millions of people on their coach can see is obviously wrong should be corrected.  The key being obvious - people who argue well some calls are subjective - well they almost all are - if it isn't immediately obvious then the eye in the sky doesn't intervene - even then the game is 1000% better when the obvious calls are corrected in real time by the eye in the sky with no disruption 

 

It's also dumb to me to assume that somehow a ref on the field always has a "better view" of a play than multiple slo-mo angles in high-def.  It has been shown over and over the game moves too fast for refs on the field to see every play properly

 

The key to me is getting the eye in the sky immediate replay looks - not sure how that works today, I assume they have access to replays beyond the the crappy TV production that exists nowadays where replays aren't even shown for majority of plays to viewers

Edited February 6 by stevewin

[Doc Brown]

5 hours ago, finn said:

I should use these types of comments in my class to teach logical fallacies. Someone says they suspect the game is rigged, and the Straw Men come out in force. My only question is why do you stop at claiming all the refs have to be involved in tipping a close game? Why not go whole hog? "Are you telling me that the entire NFL--all its employees, from Goodell to the janitors--ALL are working with Goodell to rig games? And their families, too? And the media and their families? We're talking nearly a 100 million people here! How could a hundred million people work in such silence to rig the game? It's ludicrous!" Straw Man right back at you. 

When did you stop reading the rest of the thread?

[Success]

It would be kind of fun if a completely egregious call ended up costing KC the 3-peat.

 

[90sBills]

2 hours ago, C.Biscuit97 said:

but yes, the refs are cheating to make the giant metropolis of Kansas City (which is such a stupid place it doesn’t know what state it is) their darling team. Not NYC, not LA, not Chicago, not a Bills- Lions SB which would have set records before the earth exploded. They choose KC. 

They chose Taylor Swift. 

[Brand J]

1 hour ago, Success said:

It would be kind of fun if a completely egregious call ended up costing KC the 3-peat.

 

It’s what I hope for - not something egregious, but either a ticky tack call that costs them the SB (like the jersey tug that cost the Eagles), a soft roughing the passer penalty, or a bad ball spot.

[ToGoGo]

7 hours ago, Brand J said:

This author sounds like he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth, repeatedly dismissing playoff results as small sample sizes, but then agreeing the Chiefs have been the beneficiaries of good fortune when the games count.
 

EVERY mainstream sports writer working for a big outlet writes in this template when discussing “conspiracies”. 
 

Title: “Are the Chiefs benefiting from favorable calls?” 
 

“It sure seems like it!

 

Of course after further review this is not the case.” 
 

It’s so consistent, it’s almost like they are told to write it this way by their editors. Pull the suspicious reader in, then plant seeds of doubt in their head. 

[Orlando Buffalo]

This discussion seems to missing on one big topic, which is simply the officiating is abysmal. The fact that the officials were terrible in the Bears vs NE game does not matter because neither team was going anywhere but for every well officiating game I saw at least 3 poorly. The officials call what they expect more often than what they see and they really do it even more in the playoffs. They are terrible and the NFL is happy with it 

[major]

As Isaiah Thomas used to say on the pistons: “the tape don’t lie” (the tape showed multiple games where the chiefs benefited from the refs)