Social media criticism continues to surface about alleged referee favoritism of the Kansas City Chiefs, which officials and the NFL have strongly denied. File Photo by Kyle Rivas/UPI | License Photo
Feb. 6 (UPI) — Former NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira doesn’t agree with fans who think the league is conspiring to help the Kansas City Chiefs, but wishes quarterback Patrick Mahomes was penalized for flopping.
Pereira and fellow former vice president of officiating Dean Blandino, who both now work as rules analysts for Fox Sports, spoke to UPI on Thursday.
“I think that if anybody got a chance to be an official in the NFL, they would know that there is nothing to the [conspiracy] story,” Pereira said at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.
“I understand it because numbers kind of show it and the iffy calls have kinda gone the Chiefs way, but in reality, officials are only trying to do one thing: Make the right call.”
Conspiracy theories gained steam throughout the Chiefs’ dynastic run, which could extend with an unprecedented third-consecutive Super Bowl victory when they face the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday at Caesars Superdome. During that run, the Chiefs were called for fewer penalties than their opponents in 16 of 20 playoff games — including each of their last 12 — in the Mahomes era, which started in 2019.
The Chiefs were penalized 41 times for 341 yards over their last 12 games, compared to 72 penalties for 589 yards for their foes. Mahomes said this postseason that he doesn’t believe the Chiefs get more favorable calls than their foes, but admitted to a flop against the Houston Texans in the divisional round.
Many of the most talked about Chiefs-related calls have involved Mahomes, who often extends plays with runs up the sidelines, sometimes embellishing hits at the end of those plays to earn penalties and extra yardage.
“Flops usually have one difference from regular play,” Pereira said. “It’s a delayed action. If there is a push, then a down, you can read that a little bit. But the game is about deceit, right? There are all kinds of fakes, play action passes where you fake. … Most of the time, you can decipher if it’s a flop or not, but it’s no guarantee.
“I wish we could do something, but you can’t give them a technical foul. Maybe an unfair act [penalty], maybe we could do that.”
Blandino said officials study film on the teams they referee, similar to the way the teams analyze each other, before they work games. He also conceded that it is still most difficult to officiate quarterbacks who like to run, including Mahomes.
“Any mobile quarterback is always going to be more difficult to officiate,” Blandino said. “The guys like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning who stayed in the pocket and knew when to get rid of the football,