Hey, did you all know that the Kansas City Chiefs only made it to the Super Bowl because the refs were helping them win every game? That's what the Chiefs haters had convinced themselves was happening this offseason but after K.C. was blown out in the Super Bowl, it feels like that narrative needs to officially go bye bye.
Now we have even more evidence that the Chiefs weren't "getting all the calls", as Mike Garafolo shared a stat from the league on X. The stat was about the number of fouls drawn per 100 hits.
As much as the Chiefs haters complained that Patrick Mahomes always gets the calls, he was not first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh on the list. That's right, to get to Mahomes on this list, you have to go all the way to number eight. Ahead of him were Tua Tagovailoa, Josh Allen (ha!), Bryce Young, Cooper Rush, Kyler Murray, Jared Goff, and Baker Mayfield.
The funniest part of this data is that Josh Allen is SECOND on the list! After all of the complaining that Bills fans have done following the AFC Championship Game (and it's been a lot), to see Allen six spots higher than Mahomes is priceless.
Chiefs haters have no right to complain about Patrick Mahomes after latest penalty data
Chiefs fans already knew all of the ref stuff was crap but this confirms it. Sadly, it likely won't stop people from banging the drum of this narrative and people will now lean more into the "See when the refs don't help the Chiefs, they're garbage!" narrative instead. You can't win here apparently.
Hey, that's the turf that comes with being the team to beat in the league. The Patriots dealt with this for two decades and Chiefs fans can admit that it did seem like the Pats got a lot of calls. A reason why this felt like this for the Patriots and Chiefs is that, because they were/are the top teams in the league, they were/are on primetime a lot more. That means viewers see the refs calling a few plays in their favor more often and ta da -- There's your conspiracy theory explained in a reasonable take.
Do the Chiefs get some calls? Sure, there's no doubt about that. Do they get calls that teams like the Panthers and Titans aren't getting? Yup, for sure. Are the refs actively aspiring against the Chiefs' opponents each week to screw them over so they can laugh with Roger Goodell about their brilliant scheme? Most likely not.
Let's turn the page and find a new narrative now, okay?