NFL accused of ‘sneaky’ referee move for Chiefs-Bills playoff game
The NFL’s decision to assign Clete Blakeman as the head official for the AFC Championship Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills has drawn considerable attention. The NFL has seemingly taken note of the growing discourse suggesting that the Kansas City Chiefs receive preferential treatment from officials – at least according to one talking head.
Throughout the regular season and playoffs, fans and pundits alike have alleged that the Chiefs have benefitted from far more penalty calls than their opponents. These claims reached a fever pitch during Kansas City’s 23-14 win over the Houston Texans in the Divisional Round. In the third quarter of the Chiefs’ victory, Quarterback Patrick Mahomes ran for a short gain before cutting back towards the middle of the field and surrendering himself. As the 29-year-old hit the deck, Texans defensive tackle Folorunso Fatukasi and linebacker Henry To’oTo’o converged on him and butted helmets.

Though Mahomes managed to avoid the brunt of the collision, the Texans were still hit with a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty. ESPN analyst Troy Aikman promptly expressed his disagreement with the call, lamenting on the broadcast: „Oh, come on. I mean, he’s a runner. I could not disagree with that one more.
“He barely gets hit. You can’t, as a quarterback, run around and play games with the defenders and then get called for a penalty.”
The blatant miscall – in addition to several others scattered throughout the game – drew fierce backlash from viewers, prompting one content creator to suggest that the league made a “sneaky” change to their officiating crew to balance the scales for the Chiefs’ AFC Championship clash against the Buffalo Bills.
“The NFL just did something really sneaky for the AFC championship game and they’re hoping that nobody notices,” he said. “They’ve obviously heard all of the chatter about how the league and the referees love Mahomes. They love the Chiefs, they get every call. So they went ahead and assigned Clete Blakeman as the head official for this game.
“The Chiefs are just 5-6 straight up with Blakeman as the referee. Now remember over the last several years this team has not done much losing. So to me, it’s a little bit odd that they chose one of the only referees that they have a below .500 record with.
“On top of this, he’s in the minority of referees that don’t play to the home team. 54% of his penalties get called against the home team, which is unusual. And home teams in his game this season went 5-11 straight up. Now on the other side, the Bills are 6-2 straight up when Blakeman is a referee.”
Mahomes, for one, is paying little attention to accusations of Chiefs favoritism from officials. “I don’t feel that way,” he said when asked if referees give him extra protection.
“I just try to play football at the end of the day. The referees are doing their best to call the game as fair and as proper as they can and all you can do is go out there and play the game you love as hard as you can and live with the results.”
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