NEW ORLEANS — Mike Pereira made his way to a chair waiting for him inside a meeting room at the Convention Center here Thursday when he began to laugh at the crowd of media waiting for him.
“Why is everybody here?” said Pereira, the former NFL referee who will be the rules analyst for Fox at Super Bowl 2025 on Sunday. “We don’t have anything to talk about. We know something is wrong.”
What’s wrong for the NFL is one of the biggest stories surrounding Sunday’s game is the officials and how they will call the game.
There is a widespread belief that refs are showing favoritism toward the Chiefs. There are statistics that show they have gotten fewer flags than their opponents in the playoffs in recent years. There have been questionable penalty calls and a shaky fourth-down measurement during this playoff run.
All of it adds up to a story the public can’t seem to get enough of, and the NFL just wants to go away. Are the Eagles playing the Chiefs AND the officials Sunday?
“[It’s] a ridiculous theory, for anyone who might take it seriously,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said this week.
Goodell can call it ridiculous, but the theory will only gain steam if the Chiefs are the beneficiary of a questionable flag Sunday, especially late in the game. The NFL has to hope referee Ron Torbert is not a bigger star than Saquon Barkley come Monday morning.
“If we pick up the paper and there’s no mention of them, that’s success,” said Pereira, who oversaw the NFL’s officiating from 1998-2010. “They know they’re under pressure.”
Pereira was speaking at an event Fox held for the media that featured its analysts. The room had Hall of Famers, Super Bowl MVPs and Super Bowl-winning coaches in it. But Pereira and fellow officiating analyst Dean Blandino had a sizeable crowd waiting to ask them whether Patrick Mahomes gets a friendly flag.
Pereira dismissed the idea as a “myth.” He compared it to the idea that referees make “makeup calls.” Periera said every official tries to get every call right so they can get graded well and advance to the playoffs and the Super Bowl. Pereira said officials now have to guard against letting this storyline get in their heads and make them overcorrect.
“I think it puts more pressure on the officials on Sunday,” Periera said. “They’re not going to officiate the game any differently but they know they’re going into the game as part of the story. That doesn’t usually happen.”
The conspiracy theory gained steam after the Chiefs’ win over the Texans in the AFC Divisional round. There were roughing the passer and unnecessary roughness penalties against the Texans that were questionable calls, at best.
In the AFC Championship game, Bills quarterback Josh Allen came up short on a fourth-down quarterback sneak where it appeared he may have gained the first down.
Now, the Chiefs face the Eagles, a team they beat two years ago with — you guessed it — a questionable defensive holding against Philadelphia cornerback James Bradberry that set up the game-winning field goal.
“We know they’re great,” SiriusXM radio host Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo said this week. “We know [Andy Reid’s] a great coach and [has] a great quarterback. I’m not saying it’s the reason they’re winning because it isn’t, but don’t tell me they don’t get a whistle because they do.”
There are different levels to the conspiracy theories when it comes to the Chiefs.
Some believe the NFL wants the Chiefs to be successful because it is good for business with Taylor Swift in the luxury suite and Patrick Mahomes as the face of football.
Others do not believe it runs that deep, just that Mahomes and Reid get calls because of their greatness like other stars of the past. Russo falls in this category.
“You want to tell me he gets the calls because he’s Mahomes and Andy Reid,” Russo said, “[Michael] Jordan got calls, [Wayne] Gretzky got calls, Barry Bonds got strike zone calls, [Greg] Maddux got pitches close to the plate called strikes, LeBron [James], no argument. But don’t sit there and tell me that this does not exist.”
Warren Sharp, who does statistical analysis, posted something before the AFC Championship game about how Chiefs playoff games had been called.
In the 11 playoff games from 2021 through the divisional round, the Chiefs had never had more penalties than their opponent. That trend continued in the AFC title game when the Bills had six penalties and the Chiefs had five.
The Chiefs have had 41 penalties in their last 12 playoff games and their opponents have had 72. The opponents were called for more defensive pass interference, defensive holding, roughing the passer, unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conducts, too.
Scott Green, the executive director of the NFL Referees Association, issued a statement this week, saying these theories are not based in reality.
“Officiating crews do not work the same team more than twice each regular season,” Green said. “It is insulting and preposterous to hear conspiracy theories that somehow 17 officiating crews consisting of 138 officials are colluding to assist one team.”
Green and Goodell can scoff at the idea of a conspiracy, but they are not going to convince many people that the Chiefs don’t benefit from the officiating.
Pereira said the league has always been accused of favoring some teams or going against others, but social media has amplified those claims, which Goodell pointed to as well.
“A lot of those theories are things that happen on social media and they get a lot of life,” Goodell said. “I think it reflects a lot of the fans’ passion.”
Super Bowl week has brought another layer to the officiating story. There are hundreds of credentialed media members here and many who are not part of the traditional media. Some are simply trying to create viral moments.
At “Opening Night,” which is part press conference and part variety show, there were questions to try to get a rise out of Chiefs players.
“Patrick, for your whole career you have had so many great people help you win,” Mahomes was asked. “So, who is your favorite ref?”
“That’s hilarious,” Mahomes said. “All the refs are great, man. All the refs are great. They do the best they can. We go out there and play the game the right way.”
“Is there one you give a Christmas card to, possibly?” came the follow-up question.
“Not that I can remember,” Mahomes said. “I’ll have to ask my teammates to try and figure it out.”
Travis Kelce also got one.
“Travis, what do you love more: Taylor Swift or phantom 15-yard roughing the passer penalties in the playoffs?”
“That’s a good question,” an annoyed Kelce said. “Anybody else?”
Kelce himself brought up the refs when a child reporter asked him what he would like to ask the media.
“Why are you guys leaning into this whole ref thing?” Kelce asked.
The question now is whether the story gains momentum after Sunday’s game if the Chiefs win after any questionable officiating decisions or it fades away.
Reid said he is not worried about the officials overcorrecting because of this story and not giving the Chiefs any calls.
“I don’t think the officials care about what’s said,” Reid said. “They’re doing their job and they’re doing it to the best of their ability. They don’t favor one side or the other, that’s not how this thing goes. It’s a good story but that’s not reality of how it works. You’d be insulting them to think that’s what they do. They go out and they call it like they see it. There’s some, as a coach, I sit there and I go, ‘I don’t agree with it.’ There’s some I agree with. That’s how it goes.”
Reid then added something everyone is thinking this week: “It does make for a good story.”
