The Crooks at Arrowhead

I still remember the days when the New England Patriots dominated football. It was certainly annoying seeing fans don Tom Brady jerseys everywhere and celebrate a team built of three godly players that went from buried in the NFL’s basement to the team to beat. Still, even the Patriots were not invincible. The New York Giants stifled them twice in the Super Bowl, with Eli Manning shutting down the Patriots’s bid for a perfect season in 2007 and then rattling a dominant Patriots side again in 2011. I watched that Super Bowl in 2011 in which the Giants were awarded a safety on the first play from scrimmage. After Brady faced pressure from Giants defensive end Justin Tuck, Brady aired out a pass to the middle of the field where no one was waiting. The officials quickly met in the corner and flagged the play as intentional grounding in the end zone, which awarded the Giants two points in their four-point victory over the Patriots.

It was a stark reminder that no matter your football skills, how great your legacy is, or how great it will be, you are not above the law. 

Just a little earlier in that 2011 season, the Kansas City Chiefs faced off against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium. At the time, Todd Haley managed the Chiefs with a full rebuild ahead of them. The team won their last playoff game in 1993, and fans had been subject to otherwise depressing and meaningless football. The Jets, on the other hand, were on the up, boasting three consecutive years of winning records while pushing for a playoff spot against this struggling Chiefs team. 

This specific game is only special for one drive, on which the Chiefs’s defense committed 81 yards of penalties to feed the Jets a free touchdown. Ultimately, this was meaningless: the Jets led 28-3 beforehand and made it out with that win. But as a result of that penalty-ridden drive, Haley lost his job as Chiefs head coach. Thanks to a perfect cascade of circumstances, the Chiefs installed an interim head coach who led the team for a year after a breakthrough win against an undefeated Packers team. And, guess who happened to be on the coaching market for the Chiefs?

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid built the next Patriots. That’s all we can compare them to—a dynastic team capable of producing breakthrough offense unlike ever before. Led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce, this team has pulled off unprecedented playoff performances and seek a third consecutive Super Bowl win. Yet, this principle of lawfulness—of playing hard and well and by the rules—is gone. That’s what sets the Chiefs apart—they are above the law. 

Let’s start at the beginning: Ravens-Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium—the most anticipated game of Week 1 featuring two playoff contenders. With seconds left to play and the Ravens down seven, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson struck receiver Isaiah Likely to nearly tie the game. After review, however, officials determined that Likely’s right toe graced the boundary of the end zone, nullifying the touchdown and handing the Chiefs the win.

So, the Chiefs caught a break, right? That happens all the time to many teams. They didn’t do anything to earn this break; it was a mistake from Likely as he tried to haul in a needlepoint pass. Let’s fast-forward to Week 3 in Atlanta, where the Chiefs were up five—a lead the Atlanta Falcons sat poised to break in the fourth quarter. Falcons receiver Kyle Pitts was bear hugged by Chiefs safety Bryan Cook as the pass was in the air—a textbook pass interference—yet there was no call from the referees, who allowed the Chiefs another free win. 

We could go on and discuss every one of these instances, but a short list should suffice. In Week 9, two obvious missed holding penalties and a false start catapulted the Chiefs over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; in Week 10, a blocked field goal took down the Denver Broncos; in Week 12, a last-second field goal against the bottom-dwelling Carolina Panthers bailed out lethargic offensive output; in Week 13, an illegal shift call on the Las Vegas Raiders’ game-tying field goal attempt; missed hold after missed hold allowed the Chiefs to narrowly step over the Los Angeles Chargers in a two-point win. The Chiefs are 12-0 in one-score games thus far, including their recent playoff win against the Houston Texans. 

We have seen frauds throw up winning records despite questionable play; in 2022, the Minnesota Vikings somehow won 13 games with a negative point differential. Fortunately, they were swiftly punished by the Giants in the Wild Card round for this atrocity. The Chiefs, on the other hand, have a different story to tell. Their first Super Bowl win was the result of a complete overhaul by Reid, who finally got to reap the benefits of a young, talented quarterback dominating defenses on pass plays. In 2022 and 2023, the Chiefs benefitted from a few favorable calls and became the NFL’s favorite on social media after pop star Taylor Swift began attending games, but they still earned their wins with the NFL’s best offense in 2022 and second-best defense in 2023. However, when a team with the 14th-best passing offense and 22nd best run game is playing for the Super Bowl with suspiciously close results in every game, one cannot deny that the one-two punch of favorable officiating and luck has sprung them another successful season.

The Texans were certainly the underdog going into the Divisional Round, but they earned the right to be there after winning a defensive slugfest against the Chargers. Despite playing in the heart of their enemy and in sub-freezing temperatures, the Texans dominated the Chiefs in every measurable statistic. They had almost 100 more rushing yards, edged out the Chiefs in passing yardage, converted more third downs, and held the ball for seven more minutes. It did not matter. The Chiefs were able to pull out their two magical win cards to advance to the Conference game once again. 

Card number one: misfortune. Their opponents played excellently but were unable to capitalize on points thanks to missed field goals that have saved the Chiefs on multiple occasions. Texans kicker John Christian Ka’imi Fairbairn hit 85.7 percent of his field goals and 94.4 percent of his PATs during the regular season. He missed one field goal and had another blocked, alongside a failed extra point in a nine-point loss. That was unfortunate, and the Chiefs’s special teams unit—who overpowered the Texans’ blockers en route to the block—certainly accounts for one of those field goals. 

This is where card number two comes into play: penalties. At the very minimum, Mahomes drew two “roughing the passer” calls with clear malicious intent. In the first quarter, Mahomes dropped back to pass on third down with minimal options. Texans defensive end Will Anderson Jr. broke through the offensive line, putting Mahomes on the clock to make a throw. Instead of forcing it early, Mahomes hesitated and held the ball, prompting Anderson Jr. to approach for the sack. At the last possible moment, Mahomes threw the ball across the middle of the field to nobody. Anderson Jr. 's momentum carried him too far forward to prevent him from making the hit, but he clearly threw on the brakes to stall his momentum and protect Mahomes. No matter. That’s a 15-yard penalty on the Texans, which eventually led to a field goal. 

In the third quarter, Mahomes exhibited a similar level of petty football. With no options through the air, he crossed the line of scrimmage and slowed down, looking for a block. With several Texans defenders converging on him, he had no options but to take the hit or slide and give himself up. However, he hesitated again, giving Texans’s defenders reason to make the hit. And again, at the last second, he began to slide, with two Texans defenders colliding into each other and lightly grazing Mahomes’s helmet. Personal foul; unnecessary roughness. Against the Texans, Mahomes showed that no matter what his opponents do, they will lose to his zebra friends calling the penalties.

Mahomes did make a third attempt to draw a penalty—one which ultimately went unrecognized by the referees. With about 12 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Mahomes scrambled out of the pocket, crossed the line of scrimmage, pump faked a couple throws despite being past the line of scrimmage, and slowly made his way out of bounds. However, he never showed intent to fully step over the line, forcing the Texans’s defense to follow him and practically force him out of bounds. After crossing the boundary, Mahomes toppled over, clearly attempting to draw the flag. Thankfully, the penalty wasn’t given, but ESPN broadcasters Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were quick to announce their dismay of Mahomes’s play. Mahomes was not playing the game of football that we all know and love. He was playing a game of chicken, and chicken has no place on the gridiron.

The Chiefs then moved on to face the Buffalo Bills at home in the AFC Championship game for the fourth time in five years. Josh Allen’s Bills were not perfect in this game—some questionable defensive play calling and dropped catches were certainly within the Bills control. What was not in the Bills’ control were the two horrible calls that irreversibly changed this game’s result. A metric called Expected Points Added (EPA) allows us to calculate the impact of an individual play and how many points a team is expected to gain or lose before that play versus after it. In the second quarter, Mahomes aired out a pass to wide receiver Xavier Worthy, which was contested heavily by Bills safety Cole Bishop. The officials ruled it a completion after video review, despite the ball evidently touching the ground before Worthy secured it with his hands. This one call added an expected 3.77 points to the Chiefs score, points that simply should not have been on the table. 

The second backbreaking call came in the fourth quarter. Hanging out in Chiefs territory on fourth down with about one yard to gain, Allen kept the ball and appeared to have crossed the marker for a first down. This was reinforced by the near-side official who had a clear sightline of Allen and the best view of whether the ball crossed the line. However, the far-side official, who had an extremely obstructed view, disagreed with the spot, insinuating it should be a turnover on downs. The onfield decision went with the disadvantaged referee, and the video review was not conclusive enough to overturn it. This play cost the Bills an expected 2.19 points, which again, holds major weight in a three-point loss. 

After watching Mahomes connect with Kelce against the Texans for what must have been the millionth time before the camera cut to Taylor Swift celebrating in a private suite, I wanted to gouge my eyes out. Every team catches breaks. Every team gets a bad call to go their way once in a while, but no one has done so with the efficacy of Reid and Mahomes’s Chiefs, who are the NFL’s clear favorites to win the Super Bowl. The football I grew up loving is dead, and justice may forever come second to the narrative of the boys in Kansas City red.