The Bills last matchup with the Chiefs, in Week 14, ended with Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid complaining incessantly about being flagged for a legitimate and rather obvious offsides penalty. They were each fairly fined ($100,000 for Reid, $50,000 for Mahomes) for their unfair public criticism and unsportsmanlike conduct. At the time, I wrote a column suggesting that Mahomes and Reid weren't griping so much over the sealed fate of that particular game, but to influence the officiating for the inevitable rematch — when the Bills and Chiefs were bound to face each other again in the playoffs.
Sure, it'd be nice to think every game starts with a blank slate, but there also seems to be a reversion-to-the-mean effect in officiating. How many times have you witnessed your home team get completely jobbed on a call that results in massive boos from the crowd, only to see the opposing team get dinged for a head-scratching penalty just a few plays later as if to “level the playing field”?
It's in referees' DNA to attempt to be as balanced as possible for each team, so it stands to reason that if they were made to believe one game ended on a completely unfair note, that they should somehow course-correct the next time those teams played each other.
Now that we're at the moment of said Bills-Chiefs rematch, I'd like to take the opportunity to remind the officiating crew that those Chiefs' gripes were completely unfair, and no such course-correction is necessary. The media spent days after the last matchup criticizing Mahomes and Reid for their petty reactions to the blatant penalty, and correctly pointed out that the only person to blame for the flag was the receiver who committed it himself, Kadarius Toney.
So refs, please don't let the Chiefs' long con aspirations come to fruition. The fines paid by Mahomes and Reid will be worth every penny in their minds if you do.
The Chiefs have had plenty of calls go their way in the playoffs already in recent memory — none bigger than the borderline defensive holding call against the Eagles that sealed the Chiefs' victory in last year's Super Bowl. (Even Travis Kelce made a joke about that one when he hosted SNL last March).
This Bills-Chiefs matchup will undoubtedly be close even with a level-officiated playing field. Sure the Chiefs offense has had its woes of late, but they seem to have a way of figuring things out for the playoffs. Plus, the Bills defense is ridiculously beaten up at the moment. And when Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen square off, anything can happen.
So let's let that anything play out to its fullest potential. Don't let a correctly enforced penalty to end the Bills and Chiefs' last epic grudge match have any bearing whatsoever on the current one.
NOTE: Josh Silverstein is a diehard Bills fan and may not have the most objective of opinions on this subject.
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