No, NFL officials are not biased in favor of the Chiefs, says former league executive
Judging by comments on social media from NFL fans, the Chiefs are destined to repeat as Super Bowl champions.
How could they fail to win another Lombardi Trophy when the league’s officials are biased toward the Chiefs?
That’s been the sentiment on social media after the Chiefs’ last two games. Both included fourth-quarter calls by NFL officials that fans of other teams think were slanted in favor of the Chiefs.
Nonsense says former NFL Vice President of Officiating Dean Blandino. During an interview Tuesday on KCSP (610 AM), Blandino said complaints about game officials being biased generally happens when talking about successful teams.
“Around the league when the Patriots were winning six Super Bowls, that was kind of the feeling that they were getting a lot of the calls,” said Blandino, who is Fox Sports’ rules analyst. “These things tend to kind of even out over the course of time. Officials go into a game, they don’t look at the two teams in terms of what their records are. They don’t look at any of that.
“They are getting evaluated and there’s so much scrutiny on the officials, not just in the moment by the fans, the coaches, the players, the broadcasters, but after the game they’re evaluated by NFL league officiating departments. And those evaluations are going to be what gives them playoff assignments or they no longer are part of the league if they don’t grade out very well. So they don’t look at that.
“I know that’s a popular narrative around fans who say they’re a successful team, they’re gonna get the call, that stuff tends to even out over the course of time.”
Officials picked up a penalty flag for pass interference on the Chiefs’ L’Jarius Sneed late in Sunday’s game at Minnesota. That, coupled with no penalty being called for Sneed removing his helmet, infuriated many fans.
However, Blandino thought the officials made the right call picking up the flag, as did CBS Sports rules analyst Gene Steratore.
“No, I didn’t see pass interference on that call,” Blandino said. “There were a couple of plays towards the end of that game that there was some debate about but I didn’t think there was pass interference at the end of the game or on the play where L’Jarius Sneed took off his helmet. That should have been flagged, but I didn’t think that there was pass interference on that play.”
Rulebook on pass interference
Blandino dug deeper on why Sneed wasn’t penalized for pass interference. He explained that Vikings receiver Jordan Addison didn’t make a move toward the ball, which landed about 5 feet away from where he and Sneed were tangled.
“You’re looking at both players and you’re looking at are they playing the ball? If one player is playing the ball and the other isn’t, then the player that isn’t playing the ball ... you’re going to focus more on,” Blandino said. “Both players were playing the ball, then you’re looking for the rulebook talks about a material restriction. Is their contact before the ball gets there that has a material effect on the player’s ability to get to the football.
“Either Addison lost the football, he couldn’t find it or he really wasn’t fighting to get back inside to get to the football. There was just some hand fighting. They’re both looking back. I think the flag was thrown initially and I think after having a discussion with a couple of other officials, that official decided to pick the flag up, which I think was the correct call. I didn’t see enough there to make that pass interference. I didn’t see that material restriction by Sneed.”
