The NFL has been accused of a ‘sneaky’ refereeing decision for the Chiefs-Bills AFC Championship Game on Sunday.
All season long, fans have complained about a perceived refereeing bias in favor of the two-time defending champions, while players have even expressed a similar sentiment.
That issue came to the forefront again last weekend as Patrick Mahomes drew two controversial roughing penalties against the Texans. Fans have accused the league of being ‘rigged’ in the Chiefs’ favor this season.
However, one content creator has claimed that, going by their track record, the refereeing assignment for Sunday’s game favors the Bills.
‘The NFL just did something really sneaky for the AFC Championship Game, and they’re hoping that nobody notices,’ he said in a now-viral clip.
Clete Blakeman will be the referee for the AFC clash.
Clete Blakeman has been selected as the referee for Sunday’s AFC Championship game
And one content creator believes the assignment could favor Josh Allen’s Bills over Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs
And while the Chiefs have been dominant ever since Patrick Mahomes took over as the starter in 2018, the team is just 5-6 in games with Blakeman in that span.
The Bills, meanwhile, are 5-2 with Blakeman as their ref over the last five years.
Additionally, Blakeman called 53.17 percent of his penalties on the home team this year, which is nearly four percent more than the league average, per Pro Football Reference.
The Chiefs will be hosting the Bills at Arrowhead Field on Sunday.
According to NFLPenalties.com, Blakeman’s crew called the most penalties per game this past season with an average of 15.8 per contest. However, the referee won’t be with his normal crew for this playoff game.
On Wednesday, Mahomes dismissed the idea that referees are giving his team favorable calls or extra protection.
‘I don’t feel that way,’ Mahomes told reporters in a press conference. ‘I just try to play football at the end of the day. The referees are doing their best to call the game as fair and as proper as they can and all you can do is go out there and play the game you love as hard as you can and live with the results.
‘So for me, it’s to go out there, play hard, try to do whatever I can to win the football game and then live with the results based off my effort and the way that we played the game. So I think that’s what we preach here in Kansas City.’
An unnecessary roughness penalty was controversially called on the Texans in the second half
Blakeman only called one Bills game this season (a game Buffalo won) and hasn’t called a Chiefs game this year.
The last Chiefs game Blakeman called was their 2023 Christmas Day defeat at the hands of the Las Vegas Raiders.
In one play last week, Houston’s Henry To’oTo’o was called for unnecessary roughness as he and teammate Folorunso Fatukasi both attempted to tackle Mahomes as he was running.
Mahomes slid at the last second, causing the two Texans players to hit each other – with minimal contact on the Kansas City quarterback.
Nonetheless, officials penalized the Texans for 15 yards in a move that was panned by ESPN’s Troy Aikman, who was calling the game, and the network’s rules analyst Russell Yurk.
Houston’s Will Anderson Jr. was also flagged for roughing the passer on Mahomes on another play.
