Refs Gone Wild – A Slow Sunday Question

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In case you watched any NFL yesterday, you witnessed the weekly bias that seems to be enjoyed by the Kansas City Chiefs.

Also:

Certainly feels like there’s a 12th man on the field every time KC takes the field. There’s also been numerous examples in the 2025 college football season where officials have inserted their incompetency into critical games.

As a Sunday question – what’s the solution? Replay games? Install a mandatory review period at halftime and end of games to determine if an extra possession should be awarded? Publicly flog the officials?

I’ll hang up and listen to your thoughts.

36 thoughts on “Refs Gone Wild – A Slow Sunday Question”

    • I want that 2018 CFPCG B1G crew tarred and feathered in front of the Arch. Still too soon.

      If any of those officials came through Georgia and got a speeding ticket on I-75, I would want them run in for grand theft and fraud.

  3. Officiating at all levels is atrocious. The NFL wants Tay-Tay at the Super Bowl, and the word has clearly gone out to make sure KC is there. College officiating is consistently terrible and favors certain teams (the call in the Sugar Bowl was terrible). SEC officiating is a total joke as we all know. Georgia high school officiating is absolutely pathetic (sorry if any of you lurk here).

    • That roughing the passer call is one of the worst calls I’ve seen supposedly professional officials make. It’s garbage like this that makes people believe the game results are fixed.

      • ee, if you and I had next level team ownership, we would scream to the tallest mountains about our QB protection program….since we don’t, flogging seems a bit much, public lashings are a decent forum, am a big fan of the cattle prod as a method of using better judgement or better yet, only allow peeps that have been in the arena as future zebras, then if nobody applies for the position, the games are performed with no officials except the time keeper….GO DAWGS!!

    • ee, you are a smart, level headed guy, so I am surprised you are articulating the “NFL is fixing it so Taylor Swift can appear at the Super Bowl” nonsense. If the NFL wants eyeballs on Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl it can promise, say, a big donation to her favorite charity is she appears and mugs for the camera.
      Don’t you agree that the NFL owners are the alpha male, super competitive billionaires in the this country? How many would agree to his team losing a Super Bowl so Taylor Swift, or an6 other entertainer, would be in a box at the game?

      • I am saying the word has gone out that KC will get the calls. The Chiefs get all the calls that Brady and the Patriots used to get. It was happening before Taylor and Travis. It’s gone to a completely different level since.

        The benefits KC gets from the officiating would make the SEC office and Alabama blush.

        Care to explain a theory on why a normal football play like the one in the clip above gets called roughing the passer?

        • Whatever the reason KC gets the calls I am confident it is not because “the NFL wants Tay-Tay at the Super Bowl.” I also believe Roger Godell isn’t risking his $69 million dollar a year salary by tilting the playing field against 30 of his 32 bosses.
          My theory is that it is more that officials in the heat of the moment assume that the best players and best teams suceed because of ability and are not expecting that they committed s penalty to succeed, whereas a lesser team just must have committed a penalty if it succeeded against a better team.

          • Good grief. Get a grip. Taylor Swift being at the SB gets every home with a 25 and younger woman tuning in.

            I say it tongue in cheek, but Goodell didn’t mind the Chiefs beating the Texans.

          • I agree that having Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl would attract Swifties who otherwise may not watch IF they could see Taylor Swift actually doing something. Sing the National Anthem. Pay her to make an appearance during pregame or between quarters giving some charitable award on behalf of the NFL. Swifties who aren’t interested in the Super Bowl aren’t going to watch something they don’t like on television for a couple of hours hoping for one or two 3 second owner’s box candid shots.

            The NFL is a thousand times more interested in the gambling industry and bettors believing that the games are honest and fair competitions than they are interested in putting its corporate finger on the officiating scale so women who don’t like football will watch in order to get a couple of 5 second views of Swift chatting in a luxury box.
            If the league is having officials affect the games then the reason for doing so is far more profound than hoping Taylor Swift watching her boyfriend play.

  5. The difference in what can be seen at field level during split seconds of live action and what an array of super slo-mo high def cameras can see is incomparable. The non-hit on his highness Mahomes by To-To would have looked and sounded like the penalty they called. The problem is the league has not reconciled the role of the cameras vs the refs. Bias is still to the stripes on the field with limited interruptions of the replay booth. They’ve got it backwards. Put a few officials in the booth using the camera to call penalties. The on field refs can be then more limited and focused on game management. NFL is in position to use even more technology efficiently.

    But that cost is prohibitive in college and certainly high schools. For big time college the bias needs to be to the refs on the field and be specific about what the video booth can call…pretty much how it is now but they can tweak the rules some to call more and speed up the process.

    I’m incredulous there are still enough volunteers at the JUCO and HS levels to even call games. I think much more should be done to protect the amateur status of HS play and lower everyone’s expectations but, of course, even HS sports have become big business for far too many. When money is on the line, the innocence of mistakes and physical limitations is ignored.

    • P.S. I think AI robots will eventually be used. Can’t think of a better test for eventual military use for these contraptions to move, observe, evaluate and make decisions in real time. Probably some mix of field level robots and overhead drones integrated with technology in the actual playing surface and possibly equipment. Soccer probably the easiest to start with but can see other sports adopting it quickly. I give it 5 years to see experiments, 10 years to full implementation. Costs will come down so it will be available at the PeeWee level. One official with an iPhone can oversee the whole thing.

    • I high school ref sits in front of us at Sanford and he will give the call for the flag before the ref on the field does. He will also tell us non-called flags and sometimes defend as call. It has been interesting to hear his take. I think refs are human and what you see close up is way different than what you see when they slow film down and go frame by frame on a call. I worry about sports betting affecting calls.

    • It starts way before high school – as I tell my kids (and other parents many times!), they blow it in the pros all the time and they’re being paid thousands of dollars, so do you really think the guys out there grinding for $40 a game for a 10/12 y.o. baseball or basketball game are going to get it right???

  6. My personal favorite was that call in the second half when the Texans defenders collided with each other but not with Mahomes. Tough enchiladas, unnecessary roughness. I think Troy Aikman popped a vein.

    • That was without question the wrong call. It was so bad someone at the league office should be allowed to step in and reverse it. I’ve read that the officiating crew working that game is 8-0 for KC. I don’t believe the owners allow the games to be fixed. Only because theres way too much money involved to keep it secret.

      What I do believe is each NFL official just like college referees knows what outcomes favor their paymasters. Which directly influences their careers, salaries and bonuses. It’s the unsaid biases that influence game outcomes. It’s the same deal Georgia ran into against TU in Austin. We were supposed to lose that day. Kirby beat the system that day.

      • How does the NFL reverse a bad call in real time? I guess someone from the league can buzz in to review and reverse but what calls can they review? Do the fans in the stands and viewers on television sit through review and reversal over and over?
        I would rather the NFL require the officials to sit for post game press conferences and answer questions about calls.

        • Did you even watch the last 2, er, I mean 30 minutes of the Georgia-Kentucky game last week??? The leagues are, in fact, telling CBB officials, “when in doubt, go to the monitor”. It was absolutely unbearable on tv, could not have imaged being there….

  7. The better question is “Would KC still be getting those calls if Travis and Taylor weren’t a thing?” When they say it’s not about the money…

    • Fixing a game so Taylor Swift can go to the Super Bowl? Does the tin foil hat itch?

      • Wow — not sure how asking the question if KC would get the same calls if Tay-Tay weren’t a thing is not in the same league as “Fixing a Game.” Do I think there is bias? You bet. Does that mean the game is fixed? I would think not.

  8. Since we’re told that, in college games, that every play is reviewed, why not make it where calls or non-calls can be called or overturned by an official in the booth?

    Everyone’s seen things like PI, Late Hits, Offsides and Holding called or not called that impact the games far too much. The only negative to be able to call or overturn any call during a game is how long it takes the idiots to review and make the call. It’s amazing how fast anyone can see on TV if a call is valid or not, but the idiot officials take forever and sometimes still get it wrong! I know it will never happen, but some calls (or non-calls) are so obvious that it shouldn’t take over 30 seconds to look at it and get it right.

    • There’s a little something else in play there..
      The opportunity to cut away from the game and show 7 or 8 ads during the review.
      I wonder how much ad money the networks have made off of reviews.

  9. NFL? I don’t even watch anymore and I used to love the NFL, but since they keep changing the rules to were you can’t even hit or tackle someone (especially the QB) without a penalty, running the clock when players go out of bounds to fit into a time slot on TV and appearing to fix games with terrible calls (or non-calls) at critical times and the favoring of certain teams, I’ve lost all interest. I can’t tell you the last time that I did watch any part of an NFL game and thought that it was exciting or even interesting.

  10. Maybe after every game, a NFL review team watches and reviews every penalty that was called and determines if it was the right call and justified. I know some calls are judgement calls, however, if the penalty is determined to not meet the criteria or is a wrong/bad call, then the official who made the call should be fined or his compensation/salary be reduced by a small percentage. Can’t ask them to be perfect but it may stop some from throwing BS flags.

    • Start firing their asses or make them call the Jags vs. the Browns in Cleveland for a meaningless 4:00 game in December.

      The fact that the NFL brass (I detest Roger Goodell) doesn’t say anything (especially the other owners in the AFC especially the West) should speak volumes. The Chiefs are currently a ratings bonanza.

      I saw the Chiefs are playing in their 7th straight AFC CG. In a league known for encouraging parity, isn’t that interesting?

      • The NFL likes parity because it keeps local fan bases tuned in throughout the season but it also likes having dynasties at the top to attract national audiences and fuel narratives. And it’ll protect its poster boys who QB dominant franchises.

        Is the league fixed? Good question. I’ve always assumed Vegas influences results but (if I’m not wearing a tinfoil hat) those involved have been too scared/bought to say much if anything about it. Do the networks and league also work toward certain results? It sure seems like it but it’d be helpful to see proof (other than my lying eyes).

  12. Who knows maybe they’re saving it for a universe-crashing change of karma for the coach that never met a cliche or catch-phrase he didn’t like—-one Daniel Patrick Quinn he of 28-3 infamy and HC of the red-hot Washington football club…..

  13. It’s late and prob writing this only for myself..
    But if every SEC coach was allowed to ban (two?) crews from calling any game his team is in (including post season) for two years…It would help.
    AND then if a particular crew received the ban from three or more coaches in one year….they’re fired.

    • The SEC had a rule in basketball years ago that the conference would not assign an official to call a game if the head coach of one of the teams objected. The SEC changed that rule years ago.

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