The Kansas City Chiefs have emerged as the NFL’s new golden franchise in the Patrick Mahomes-Travis Kelce-Andy Reid era. Just when parity appeared to be on the way with the New England Patriots dynasty finally ending in 2020, the Chiefs have mopped up the rest of the league like clockwork.
But like those old Patriots, these Chiefs have received a helping hand from the NFL refs time and time and time again, to the point where it legitimately feels like these games are scripted like it’s the WWE.
With that said, let’s dive into 10 games involving the Kansas City Chiefs that looked totally rigged in their favor.
Are the Kansas City Chiefs truly favored by the NFL to win games?
2024 AFC Divisional Round vs. Houston Texans
How else could we start the list? Make no mistake, the Chiefs have been getting the calls for a while now. But the whole “refs favor the Chiefs thing” reached another level when they hosted the Houston Texans in the 2024 AFC Divisional Round.
For starters, allow us to present to you this atrocious “roughing the passer” call against Houston defensive end Will Anderson Jr. on Patrick Mahomes in the first quarter. Yes, the officials really did call that in a playoff game.
Oh, and you know how the league introduced a new rule to ban hip-drop tackles? Apparently, that doesn’t apply to the Chiefs, specifically Bryan Cook, when he delivered such a tackle on Texans tight end Dalton Schultz. Oh, and allow us not to forget the grand-daddy of them all: The absolute worst-of-the-worst calls to benefit the Kansas City Chiefs! Henry To’oTo’o is getting flagged for “unnecessary roughness” when he literally completed the cleanest of clean tackles on Mahomes.
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So that leads to Mahomes throwing a touchdown to Travis Kelce…and the Texans never recovered. Thanks to a clown show of officiating, the Kansas City Chiefs won 23-14 to reach their seventh straight AFC Championship Game. And we say good on DeMeco Ryans, CJ Stroud, Joe Mixon, and Anderson Jr. for calling out the refs after the game. Someone had to do it.
Super Bowl 57 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
Do you know how the officials usually “Let them play” and only call the most obvious of penalties when it’s REAL close in a big game? Well, that motto went out the window at the benefit of the Chiefs in Super Bowl 57 vs. the Philadelphia Eagles.
The showdown between Jalen Hurts’ Eagles and Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs was shaping up to be perhaps the greatest Super Bowl of them all. And yet, unless you’re a KC fan, you’re like the rest of us in that you only remember it ending on a pathetic officiating call.
The back-and-forth barn burner was tied 35 apiece with less than two minutes to go. Facing a pivotal 3rd-and-8 situation, the Chiefs just needed one more first down to melt the clock and set up a Harrison Butker game-winning field goal.
Mahomes’ pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster fell incomplete to seemingly set up fourth down and give Hurts plenty of time to play the hero. But Carl Cheffers’ crew flagged James Bradbery for a tacky defensive “holding’ call against Smith-Schuster. So KC got to drain most of the clock and set up Butker for the game-winning field goal.
Guarantee you that if it was any other team in that situation, the refs wouldn’t have called it.
Week 14, 2019 vs. New England Patriots
This one was ironic in some ways. Long before the Chiefs’ dynasty started, there was the whole notion that Tom Brady and the Patriots were the ones always getting bailed out by the NFL officials.
That included the 2018 AFC Championship Game against the Chiefs 11 months earlier, including a pathetic “roughing the passer” call against Chris Jones. Well, the script flipped completely when the Chiefs came to Foxborough for a shot at revenge in Week 14 of the 2019 season.
Just how bad was the officiating in this game? The refs took not one but TWO Patriots touchdowns off the board.
Trailing by 10 points late in the third quarter, the Pats’ D forced a potential game-changing Travis Kelce fumble in their own territory to take over possession. But here’s the catch: The refs blew the whistle early A LA Myles Jack and wiped a defensive fumble return TD off the board.
And then, in the ensuing Patriots possession, Tom Brady found N’Keal Harry for a touchdown to cut the lead to four. But the ref incorrectly ruled that Harry had stepped out of bounds at the three-yard line, taking the TD off the board.
Why was that pivotal? Bill Belichick was out of challenges and couldn’t throw the red flag there. If anything else, the ref should have called it a TD and THEN let it go to review. So, the Pats eventually settled for a field goal on that drive.
They had a chance to tie it late, but their last drive stalled at the five-yard line. The Kansas City Chiefs got their revenge with a 23-16 win, with a shoutout to the refs for costing the Pats TWO touchdowns! We suppose the Patriots were due to be on the wrong side of awful officiating for once…but this was another level of BAD.
Week 2, 2024 vs. Cincinnati Bengals
After sneaking past the Baltimore Ravens in the Week 1 kickoff game, the Chiefs renewed their rivalry with Joe Burrow and the Bengals at Arrowhead Stadium.
Leave it to the officials, of course, to dictate the outcome of what was shaping up to be a true “game of the year candidate.” Did we expect anything else?
The Bengals had the back-to-back defending champions at their mercy: Up 25-23 with only 48 seconds left. Mahomes and the Chiefs faced a brutal 4th-and-16 situation from their own 35-yard line and needed some form of a miracle to stay alive.
And when we say “miracle,” we mean another helping land from the refs, as Daijahn Anthony was flagged for pass interference on Rashee Rice. That awful gave Kansas City a fresh set of downs and led to Harrison Butker’s game-winning 51-yard field goal. Probably a bad time to mention that the Bengals missed out on the postseason by one game…
In other words, they would have qualified if the referees hadn’t made this cheap call against Anthony.
2022 AFC Championship Game vs. Cincinnati Bengals
Burrow’s Bengals visited Mahomes’ Chiefs at Arrowhead in a rematch of the thrilling 2021 AFC Championship Game, which Cincy won in overtime on an Evan McPherson field goal.
The game lived up to the hype, alright. It was an all-time classic between the two superstar signal-callers. But as this was a pivotal game involving Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, the refs couldn’t resist the urge to take over.
For starters, the Bengals forced a punt early in the fourth quarter with the game tied. After the play, however, the refs restarted the play with no clear-cut explanation. So KC got another chance on 3rd-and-9, though the Bengals at least held them again. Still, how fishy is that? After the game, head referee Ronald Torbert said the play was shut down, and the clock shouldn’t have started…hmm…
Oh, and then there was this missed “illegal block in the back” call on KC Skyy Moore’s 29-yard punt return to set up the game-winning drive. Watch No. 85 in red near the Chiefs’ 30-yard line. And to think it was about to get even worse. With only eight seconds remaining, Joseph Ossai was penalized for “unnecessary roughness” as Mahomes scrambled out of bounds for the first down.
Maybe that’s a fair penalty in the regular season, but you’re really gonna let a championship game come down to that? So, of course, Harrison Butker drilled the game-winning field goal to send Kansas City to the AFC Championship Game, with the Bengals once again falling short of a Super Bowl dream via referee screwjob.
Week 13, 2024 vs. Las Vegas Raiders
The Chiefs hosted their AFC West rivals in the second NFL “Black Friday” Game on Nov. 29, a day after the Thanksgiving tripleheader. As usual, count on the refs to spoil a good ending…in favor of Kansas City.
Quarterback Aidan O’Connell and the Raiders defense played admirably well against the heavily favored Chiefs, trailing 19-17 with less than two minutes to go.
O’Connell put together an excellent drive and had the Raiders on the cusp of an upset win. They were in field goal range at the KC 32-yard line with 15 seconds left, with a chance to get even closer.
O’Connell fumbled the snap, however, and the Chiefs quickly pounced on it. But fear not! The refs threw a flag quickly to seemingly call Vegas for a false start that would nullify the game-sealing fumble.
A false start is a false start. Cut and dry. The defense cannot “decline” the penalty. So, of course, the refs wound up calling an “illegal shift” penalty on the Raiders that the Chiefs were ALLOWED to decline — thus sealing the game for the home team. We’ve never seen an ending like that before. Of course, the Chiefs were involved in this once-in-a-million ending, though.
Week 3, 2024 vs. Atlanta Falcons
Woof, you could make a top-10 list of games alone from the 2024 season.
Like the aforementioned Week 2 game against the Bengals, the Falcons-Chiefs game one week later came down to one terrible no-call by the officials. Take a guess which side benefited from the call…
Kansas City led Kirk Cousins’ Falcons 22-17 on ‘Sunday Night Football’ with just four minutes remaining. Facing a third-down situation in the red zone, Cousins targeted big tight end Kyle Pitts with safety Bryan Cook in coverage.
Despite the obvious mismatch, Cook managed to force an incomplete pass by committing a genius tactic: Get away with clear-as-day pass interference! The Kansas City Chiefs would force a turnover on downs, burn some clock, and make one last defensive stop to win 22-17.
Not sure about you, but something tells us the Falcons would have scored a TD with four shots on the one-yard line if the refs actually threw a flag on Cook there…
Super Bowl 58 vs. San Francisco 49ers
Four years after their thrilling Super Bowl 54 clash in Miami, the Chiefs and 49ers squared off in the big dance again, this time at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
You just knew that this game was somehow going to come down to several bad calls, and of course, the Chiefs were again the beneficiary. You know, such as the ridiculous amount of times their o-line got away with blatant holding on Nick Bosa.
That wasn’t even the worst call, though. On KC’s game-winning overtime drive, Mahomes found Rashee Rice for a 13-yard catch on 3rd-and-6. Look below, though, and you’ll see Chiefs running back Jerick McKinnon got away with a clear hold on 49ers linebacker Fred Warner.
The Chiefs, of course, would win the game with Mahomes tossing the Super Bowl-clinching touchdown to Mecole Hardman — made largely possible by the o-line getting away with holding all day long!!!
2023 AFC Championship Game vs. Baltimore Ravens
Like pass interference or roughing the passer, the issue with “Taunting” penalties is that the refs never call it with consistency. Sometimes, a guy can get away with a staredown, violent gesture, or excessive celebration toward his opponent. Other times, something as minor as a flick of the wrist draws a flag.
So, leave it to the NFL refs to be inconsistent with the “taunting” penalty during a pivotal moment of a Chiefs playoff game. Zay Flowers caught a 54-yard pass to jump-start the Ravens offense late in the third quarter, only to be hit with a 15-yard penalty for taunting.
A few minutes later, Flowers coughed up the football on a fumble near the goal line. Now, let’s compare that Flowers penalty to Travis Kelce avoiding a “taunting” foul in the 2024 Divisional Round vs. Houston.
And to think it was about to get even worse! With only three and a half minutes remaining, the Ravens were forced to settle for a Justin Tucker field goal after Isaiah Likely was clearly interfered with on this third-down play.
Tucker’s field goal cut the lead to seven, but it didn’t matter. The Kansas City Chiefs got the ball back and melted the rest of the clock to reach the Super Bowl for the fourth time in five years — thanks, of course, to some help from the refs.
Super Bowl 54 vs. San Francisco 49ers
As upset as 49ers fans had to be about the officiating in Super Bowl 58, you may forget that it was actually miles worse in their first big game showdown four years earlier.
The first big game-changing officiating mistake came late in the waning seconds of the first half when George Kittle’s big catch to set up a potential go-ahead field goal was called back because of a cheap offensive PI call.
As 49ers fans recall…that was just the start of the crappy officiating in favor of the Chiefs. With less than 10 minutes to go in the fourth quarter and the 49ers up 10, KC stopped a Jimmy Garoppolo scramble to force a punt. And when we say “Stopped,” we mean to get away with what probably was unnecessary roughness.
But the worst was yet to come, ladies and gentlemen. You know how any head-to-head contact on the quarterback is supposed to be roughing the passer? NOT if the Chiefs commit it in a big game!
Garoppolo was hit in the head on a 3rd-down play with his team clinging to a three-point lead. But don’t worry, and the refs had to miss it so that Mahomes could get the ball back and later hit Damien Williams for the game-winning touchdown. We should have known that this was the start of the Chiefs’ dynastic run that would largely be fueled by the officiating, huh?
