Ahead of Super Bowl LIX and the Kansas City Chiefs’ bid to become the first team to win three consecutive Super Bowls, criticism of NFL officiating’s role in the Chiefs’ success has become so loud and vicious that the NFL Referees Association felt compelled to publicly respond, calling allegations of favoritism towards Kansas City “insulting and preposterous.” Try as they might, however, the idea that the Chiefs have the referees in their back pocket hasn’t gone away — particularly not given comments by prominent NFL names such as Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver Terrell Owens.
In comments made last week that have resurfaced online in the lead-up to the Super Bowl, Owens argued the NFL has shown “blatant” favoritism towards the Chiefs and superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes, pointing directly to the AFC Divisional Round game against the Houston Texans where Mahomes received several favorable calls, namely a soft roughing the passer call against Texans pass rusher Will Anderson.
“Mahomes is smart, he’s dinking around, he’s causing the flag, you know what I mean?”, Owens said on the It Is What It Is podcast. “He’s getting the benefit. He didn’t even get hit. Fifteen-yard flag, the guy, Will Anderson, barely hit him. That can stop the momentum of the game. At that point in time, the Houston Texans were in the game.
“Those calls right there advances them, gives them extra downs. It changed the whole complexity of the game.”
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Owens also referenced several Super Bowls that Mahomes has played in, including Super Bowl XLVIII a year ago against the San Francisco 49ers.
“Look at all the holding calls. If you watched the tape, it was cray,” Owens said. “They were getting clothes-lined and they were not calling it. It was blatant, blatant calls that were obvious. It was blatant, it’s unreal.
“I never would’ve thought I would say that I thought games were rigged, but somebody got plays, but it is unreal at the amount of all calls that are not called against the Kansas City Chiefs that are called against everybody else.”
Interestingly, Owens played for Chiefs coach Andy Reid when he was with the Philadelphia Eagles in the mid-2000s, and was actually part of Reid’s first Super Bowl team. Owens played for the Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX, and says that Reid is his “favorite coach” he played for.
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