Over the past several weeks, accusations have swirled that the NFL is favoring the Kansas City Chiefs with officiating decisions.
The officiating in the Chiefs’ playoff games against the Houston Texans and Buffalo Bills certainly didn’t do much to quiet the anger and conspiracy theories.
Now, a former top league official weighed in on the debate, shutting down the notion that the playoffs are being manipulated in Kansas City’s favor.
Dean Blandino, who served as the NFL’s vice president of officiating from 2013 to 2017, dismissed the conspiracy theories during an interview with TMZ Sports.
“If there’s a room somewhere in the NFL offices where they were writing the script, they never invited me, and I was the head of officiating,” Blandino said. “Do teams get breaks at times? They do. And not every call is right. And sometimes that happens.”
The former officiating chief also shared a personal anecdote, revealing that even his own family members have bought into the idea that the league is fixed.
“The Chiefs have gotten the benefit of calls, but good teams make their own breaks. My brother, who is convinced that the league is rigged, that is convinced that I signed an NDA when I left the league office that I cannot tell anybody that it is rigged because I was head of officiating.
“Thereās no conspiracy. The officials, thereās too many variables, thereās too much going on,” Blandino added.
Blandino is not alone in his stance.
FOX rules analyst Mike Pereira, another former NFL officiating executive, also dismissed the notion that referees favor certain teams or players.
“It doesnāt resonate with me at all,” Pereira said on The Rich Eisen Show. “The fact that youāre looking out for anyone, any team, any individual is a myth. It is an absolute myth.
“You donāt have time to react and say, āThis is Goff, Iām not going to call this because itās Goff,ā or, āThis is Mahomes, Iāve got to call this because itās Mahomes.'”
Appearing on The Jim Rome Show, Bills legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Andre Reed also weighed in on the controversy.
Reed had a very different take than Blandino and Pereira. He believes the refs do play a factor when teams try to knock off the Chiefs, especially at Arrowhead Stadium.
āThe bottom line is you just gotta go out there and not play against the refs, but you kind of to a center point,ā Reed said.
“A lot of Chiefs are going to tell me I donāt know what Iām talking about. That might be the case. But when you go into Kansas City, you gotta beat a lot of people.
āYou gotta beat the team. You gotta beat the fans. You gotta beat the refs. You gotta beat Taylor Swift. You gotta beat everybody.”
Despite the skepticism surrounding officiating, the Chiefs are focused on the field.
Kansas City will face the Philadelphia Eagles on Feb. 9 in Super Bowl LIX, aiming to become the first team in NFL history to pull off a three-peat.
Of course, the conspiracy theories will continue to fly. As a matter of fact, they will only intensify as the Super Bowl gets closer.
What is your stance on the issue? … Whether influenced by the league or not, do you think the refs do in fact favor the Chiefs???
