Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are once again one of two teams left standing, with their win over the Buffalo Bills in the AFC championship game cementing their third consecutive Super Bowl appearance. There's more controversy surrounding this particular trip to the big game, though.
Fans have grown frustrated over the course of the year (and especially in the playoffs) with the perception that the referees favor the defending champions when calling penalties. This narrative has only grown stronger after the Chiefs enjoyed a few favorable calls in their playoff run, and the noise peaked after the officials didn't give Josh Allen and the Bills a pivotal fourth down in the fourth quarter of the AFC championship game.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was asked about this on Monday during his Super Bowl media availability and he did not mince words, calling the idea a "ridiculous theory."
"It sort of reminds me of 'the script'," Goodell said, per Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer. "A lot of those theories happen on social media ... It's a ridiculous theory, for anyone who might take it seriously."
As always, the concept that some grand conspiracy is at work to ensure one football team wins is hard to believe. It's far more likely the Chiefs have simply been lucky. To a significant degree, to be sure, but it's reminiscent of similar accusations surrounding the New England Patriots dynasty— and even that, eventually, crumbled.
Regardless of the believability it's undeniably a talking point at this stage, as evidenced by the fact that someone asked the commissioner about it. Goodell did his best to shut it down.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Roger Goodell Calls Out ‘Ridiculous Theory' That Chiefs Are Favored by Refs.
