The Kansas City Chiefs and superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes get the benefit of so many officiating calls that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had to answer a question about the trend being intentional during his pre-Super Bowl press conference.

“That’s a ridiculous theory for anyone who might take it seriously,” Goodell said of preferential treatment toward Kansas City.

The Ringer’s Rodger Sherman posted an excellent deep dive into the “Kansas City gets all the calls!” theory this week, partially debunking it.

“Since the start of the Mahomes era, the Chiefs have been called for eight more penalties than their opponents in the regular season, and 21 fewer if we include postseason games. They have been penalized for 954 more yards than their opponents in that span in the regular season,” Sherman writes.

Not to mention, the “You can never even touch Patrick Mahomes!” complaint doesn’t hold as much water as you might think. Among active quarterbacks, Sherman claims Josh Allen, Jared Goff and Kirk Cousins have gotten more roughing the passer calls than him.

I would’ve preferred if Sherman opened the window a little later — maybe around 2020 or 2021 after Mahomes was anointed as The Chosen One and an established Super Bowl winner. I wonder if that may paint a more representative picture of complaints from rival fanbases.

Or, maybe even just go over the past two or three years as a way to challenge the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce element of the conversation. After all, that’s where the real conspiracy theories have been simmering.

Yet, Sherman points to a few caveats that lend credence to gripes about the Chiefs. They are definitely worth reading in full context from his original story. Here are the shortened bullet points:

• Specifically on late-game drives with Mahomes at the helm, the Chiefs offense does get a disproportionate amount of penalty calls in their favor.

• The Chiefs have a massive amount of defensive holding calls on Mahomes’ receivers in their favor. It’s 86 since 2018, the most in the NFL.

• Reid’s successful challenge rate is at 49.7%. Throughout history, NFL coaches are at 40%. He’s 21 of 35 (60%) in games Mahomes has started. So, it might be more about the replay officials than the on-field zebras. That, in a way, probably feels more fishy to fans outside of Kansas City.

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On his weekly radio appearance on WDVE, Western Pa. native Gene Steratore was asked if there has been such a groundswell of complaints about the officiating being in favor of K.C. that there might be an overcorrection toward the Philadelphia Eagles during Sunday’s Super Bowl between the teams.

Steratore — a retired Super Bowl referee who now is an officiating analyst for CBS — said that’s unlikely.

“It sounds right. But … no,” Steratore said with a laugh. “You’re human. You understand what the buzz is. But do I think that changes what happens once you get down (on the field)? I know I wasn’t good enough to decipher all that. I couldn’t digest all that in three seconds (before making a call).”

Steratore insisted that fear of backlash over getting a call wrong in the Super Bowl is more prevalent than pandering toward public perception.

“You just want to get every single play,” Steratore insisted. “Because you realize that a five-second blip in the wrong call at the wrong time causes grandkids to have to watch you on ESPN Classic. ‘Daddy, I never met Grandpa. But they’re yelling at him on this TV. Is that him?’”

Steratore advised any officials working in the Super Bowl to avoid any such online or media chatter about the topic.

“You want to make sure that you are working at the highest level you can,” Steratore insisted. “You’ve got to get away from the noise for 48 hours before they kick this football off.”

That’s good advice. But good luck in doing so.

NFL refs sending Mahomes to another Super Bowl pic.twitter.com/ckhdp64elm

— Simpsons NFL (@TheSimpsonsNFL) January 18, 2025

*Texans defender breathes on Mahomes*

The Refs: pic.twitter.com/pOEJeVnrw0

— NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) January 18, 2025

The Chiefs delivering gifts they bought on Black Friday for the refs to the officials locker room postgame pic.twitter.com/CP3DXtWzZ9

— NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) November 30, 2024

Tried to bribe the refs to call a fair game today. He would accept it because we play the Chiefs pic.twitter.com/V4kli0Tkl1

— Luca Crusifino, Esq. (@LucaCrusifino) December 25, 2024

Refs when the Chiefs need help pic.twitter.com/KQgQcve2g7

— Tim Heaney (@TeamHeaney) January 27, 2025

Refs at the Mahomes afterparty: pic.twitter.com/VLKiVJoy8z

— Immortal (@thebringerx) January 27, 2025

The refs after getting to throw a flag to help Mahomes and the Chiefs score against the Bills pic.twitter.com/XrpTmrZ5eS

— Conald Peterson (@WhyGarth) January 27, 2025

Both line officials marked it as a first down for Buffalo, but the ruling on the field is that they were short and replay will not overturn what the Chiefs want #BUFvsKC pic.twitter.com/Qme6kSn54q

— Matt Batzel (@MattBatzel) January 27, 2025

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