Breaking down claims NFL officials favour the Kansas City Chiefs

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Rumours of favouritism and superstar treatment have been centred squarely on the Kansas City Chiefs.

It’s no big surprise when you’ve been one of the teams to beat for so long and possess the kind of talent they do.

Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots can relate to being at the centre of controversy.

That is just part and parcel with having outstanding players and such a successful organisation.

Kansas City has their own set of superstar personalities like New England, from the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce romance, to all the commercials that they, Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid and Chris Jones have done; you can’t seem to get away from the Chiefs.

When you’re at or near the top for as long as KC has been, it’s logical to assume they’re getting some help along the way, but is that truly the case?

How often were the Chiefs’ opponents flagged this season?

There may be plenty of reasons to believe that the men in zebra stripes lean towards the Chiefs.

One side to that story is that the referees called 95 penalties against KC opponents during the regular season, per ESPN.

Only the Patriots and Chicago Bears saw more collective penalties than that in the regular season.

The case against the Chiefs grows stronger when considering that 96% of penalties versus KC opponents occurred in the final two minutes.

There won four of five games in which they had fewer penalties and seven of 12 when they had more.

KC had fewer penalties in five of the nine regular-season affairs in which Swift attended.

So far in the postseason, the Chiefs have had fewer flags against them than their opponents.

Their lowest percentage came during their AFC Championship victory over Baltimore when they had three penalties against them, and the Ravens had eight.

How much have refs penalized the Chiefs through the years?

As the saying goes, there are two sides to every story.

During the 2023 regular season, the Chiefs were the sixth-most flagged team in the NFL, tied with the Tennessee Titans with 126 or 7.4 a game.

That’s higher than the overall regular season average of 6.8.

Do the flags favour KC in the postseason?

In over 17 playoff games in the past six seasons, with the Chiefs featuring in the AFC Championship Game each time, they’ve lost three of those postseason affairs.

They had fewer penalties in two of those three losses.

Most notably, refs flagged them for 13 penalties in their Super Bowl defeat to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with Tampa flagged for just four.

KC’s won 10 playoff contests when having fewer penalties than the opposition and four times when they had equal or more than their opponent.

Meanwhile, only one time during the regular season did someone get a roughing the passer penalty on two-time league MVP Patrick Mahomes.

In the playoffs, there have been four.

When examining all the data, an outsider might think refs wait for the playoffs to favour KC.

The former NFL vice president of officiating dismissed that notion, though.

“If they want [the Chiefs] in the postseason,” Blandino said, “then you’re taking a chance in the regular season because they might not make it.”