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I can't believe this is story that actually needs to be written, but here we are, just two days before Super Bowl 58, and rather than breaking down the X's and O's of the game or speculating who may win Super Bowl MVP, I'm writing about conspiracy theories. I'd say that this is just the sad state of the world we live in — and due to certain public figures who shall remain nameless, that's not completely untrue — but in sports, it's just the norm. It's far easier to put the blame on or give credit to officials and conspiracy theories rather than accepting the fact that the team you root for just isn't as good as the team on top. It was true of Duke basketball in the early 90s. It was true of the New England Patriots during the entire Brady/Belichick run. It's been true of every team that LeBron James has played for over the course of the last decade and a half. And now it's true of the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Chiefs have represented the AFC in four of the last five Super Bowls. They have the undisputed best quarterback in the league in Patrick Mahomes. They have arguably the greatest receiving tight end in the history of football in Travis Kelce. They have the 4th-winningest coach in NFL history in Andy Reid. And this particular squad has the best defense of any Chiefs team we've seen in the last half of a decade. And yet, because they're now on the brink of achieving too much success, there's a notion that this is a dynasty that has been manufactured by the NFL and its officials. I'm here today to tell you that this is notion is a heaping pile of bull crap.
In 12 of the 17 games the Chiefs played during the 2023 regular season, the Chiefs were penalized more than their opponents, according to Paula Lavigne and Elizabeth Merrill of ESPN.com. In total, the Chiefs were the sixth-most penalized team in the NFL during the regular season, with their opponents accepting 96 penalty calls against Kansas City for 845 yards. In comparison, Chiefs opponents were penalized 73 times for only 604 yards, according to Pro Football Reference.
This Pro Football Reference deep dive unearthed something interesting: Since Patrick Mahomes has been the starting quarterback in Kansas City in 2018, Chiefs opponents have been penalized for fewer yards in every single season.
2022 – Chiefs penalized 87 times for 838 yards, Opponents penalized 98 times for 734 yards
2021 – Chiefs penalized 111 times for 925 yards, Opponents penalized 116 times for 911 yards
2020 – Chiefs penalized 105 times for 919 yards, Opponents penalized 97 times for 760 yards
2019 – Chiefs penalized 107 times for 1,029 yards, Opponents penalized 116 times for 844 yards
2018 – Chiefs penalized 137 times for 1,152 yards, Opponents penalized 107 times for 881 yards
In total, counting 2023, the Chiefs have been penalized 643 times for 5,708 yards. Their opponents have been penalized 607 times for 4,975 yards. And to hammer this point home, the last time the Chiefs accrued fewer penalty yards than their opponents throughout the course of an entire season was in 2015, when Patrick Mahomes was just a sophomore at Texas Tech.
Now of course, there's no way to account for missed calls, and surely there will be proud Chiefs haters who will point to countless plays throughout the game when a holding penalty could've very easily been called on the Kansas City offensive line. I have no rebuttal for that other than this: if you look closely enough, there's likely a hold that goes uncalled somewhere along the offensive line on 90 percent of drop backs. If officials called every single hold, games would last for seven hours and fans would be even more frustrated with the state of officiating than they already are. And if you're going to continue to scream about Patrick Mahomes receiving preferential treatment from NFL officials, I'd remind you that, according to Lavigne and Merrill, only one roughing the passer call went against Chiefs opponents during the regular season.
I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that the presence of music icon Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce's girlfriend, plays a large role in all of this. There are even crazier conspiracy theories out there circulating that suggest that the NFL, Swift, and the White House are in cahoots, and that's the reason why the Chiefs made a run to the Super Bowl. Again, I can't even believe this is where we're at, but it is.
On Super Bowl Sunday, I suggest you try to tune out this ridiculous noise and watch what should be one hell of a game between the two best NFL franchises of the last half of a decade… neither of which has needed any help from officials to get here.
