On Sunday, February 9th, the Philadelphia Eagles will take on the Kansas City Chiefs in the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana; and as everyone in the sports world is gearing up for the game, one big worry has arisen. What in the hell is with this referee bias? Since Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ first Super Bowl together, there have been many doubts about the quality of the refereeing in the “big game.” To some people, me included, its like these refs passed the bias they had for Tom Brady and the New England Patriots on to Mahomes and the Chiefs.
There have been a few examples so far this season already, one of them being in their regular season game vs the Las Vegas Raiders where a false start flag, that should’ve stopped the play dead right there and would’ve overturned a turnover, was seemingly picked up. After the Raiders quarterback fumbled the ball, with the Chiefs recovering it, it was waived off for no reason. This one simple picked up flag helped the Chiefs win that game, allowing the team remain undefeated.
Many other examples came in the Chiefs’ previous game versus the Buffalo Bills. From the start, it was apparent as to what was happening, one of Xavier Worthy’s catches in the 1st quarter was ruled a catch, even after video review, when it was clear that Worthy didn’t have possession, not to mention that the ball touched ground.
I’ve been watching this sport since before I could walk, and I’ve never seen that called a catch, ever. Another example of bias from the refs and New York’s review team came in the 4th quarter when the Bills QB and MVP winner Josh Allen rushed the ball on a crucial 4th down. NFL rules state that if any part of the ball crosses over the line to gain, it is a first down. During Allen’s rush, the football clearly goes over the 1st down line to gain. The ref with a direct view of the line to gain even spotted the ball as crossing the line. Even with that, though, its off to the review booth we go! As time ticked by it was obvious what was happening, they were going to overturn the 1st down call so that the Chiefs would get the ball on a “Turnover on Downs.” The referee rushed out onto the field to announce that after review, the call had been overturned. This is yet another case of something I’ve never seen called that way in my entire life. That has always been a first down, and should’ve been called there.
As Sunday rolls around, we shall see if the refs want to pull this stunt vs. the Chiefs in the game’s biggest stage, with over 180,000,000 people internationally watching. The current refs that have been assigned to the Super Bowl have been known to have Chief bias, so we shall see…
