The Kansas City Chiefs are undoubtedly the NFL’s premier organization over the past half decade for numerous reasons.
A front office that routinely drafts well and has a sharp eye for talent; the league’s #1 head coach and quarterback; and a defense curated by quite possibly the best defensive coordinator in the game, 4 x Super Bowl champion, Steve Spagnuolo.
But one thing that is mentioned less often, and perhaps for good reason, is something that the league would prefer to keep under wraps.
Refereeing decisions.
Have The Chiefs Been The Beneficiaries Of One-Sided Decisions?
Many fans and members of the media consider the Chiefs have been on the “fortunate end” of some controversial decisions over the years, including some questionable officiating decisions in the 2022 season’s AFC Championship game, where Kansas City avenged their loss the previous year to squeeze by the Chiefs, 23-20.
And whilst much of the angry chatter from fans against the Chiefs comes from a place of annoyance and jealousy of the Patrick Mahomes/Andy Reid KC dynasty – unquestionably so – there are certainly times when these online outbursts are more than justified.
One of these times is during Saturday’s Divisional Round game against the Houston Texans. On multiple occasions it seemed like the referees were making some truly poor decisions with regard to some egregious “roughing the passer” calls.
The first contained what seemed to be a very marginally late, soft hit that the defender – Will Anderson Jr. – could not do much about, and led to some immediate fan vitriol – so much so that #rigged was one of the leading national trends for long parts of Saturday afternoon.
The refs are criminal to call this roughing the passer on Will Anderson. He barely hit Mahomes.#HOUvsKC pic.twitter.com/3RO1HVqqQM
â Mike McDonalds (@MikMcDonalds) January 18, 2025
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WHAT AN ABSOLUTELY JOKE OF A LEAGUE pic.twitter.com/89onQTls0c
â Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) January 18, 2025
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And the second was perhaps even more absurd: Mahomes took the ball and moved forward as a designated runner, and after not sliding until the last second, two defenders come in to make the hit, and despite neither deliberately targeting the head, the play still resulted in a 15-yard “personal foul” call on what was a critical 3rd down.
Even color analyst, Troy Aikman expressing audible frustration with the decision, moaning “Cmon” as the officiating decision is announced.
This is the most egregious roughing the passer penalty ever. Patrick Mahomes did not run out of bounds when he had the chance, ran back into the field of play where he knew he would get tackled and likely get 15 yards off a penalty for getting touched. pic.twitter.com/7UbPOrUVpT
â Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) January 18, 2025
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âRoughing the passerâ on Mahomes when he was quite literally not even hit.
The NFL game is truly unwatchable. Never seen a blatant rig job in my life. pic.twitter.com/vVwTKJ3Fgw
â Jordan Moore (@iJordanMoore) January 18, 2025
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Even more minor decisions during the game, in which the Texans outplayed the Chiefs at many points, leading in the majority of statistical categories, seemed to have gone against Houston, including the re-emergence of a newly banned play – the hip drop tackle – taken out of the game after a severe injury sustained to Ravens’ All Pro tight end, Mark Andrews, back in 2023.
You’re not gonna see a more clear “hip drop tackle” but of course no flag because it’s the Kansas City Chiefs pic.twitter.com/K5p0CDAI3l
â Packerfan Total Access- Clayton (@packers_access) January 18, 2025
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At the end of the day – fans will always find something to complain about when big favorites and dynasties continue to win – but some of the very curious decisions made today does make one wonder about how the league is treating their most prized possession in their quest to complete a historic “three-peat”.
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This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
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