The Kansas City Chiefs are on the horizon of the first Super Bowl three-peat in history, but their journey hasn’t been without controversy. The Chiefs have dominated football after successfully making the AFC championship for seven straight years. Despite their indisputable status as the most recent NFL dynasty, football fans nationwide have taken a different approach to justifying the Chief’s success. 

In 2023, former National Football League (NFL) running back Arian Foster claimed on a Barstool Sports podcast that the league was “rigged” and that players adhered to scripts during games. While many originally interpreted Foster’s statement as a joke, his argument has recently catapulted into prevalence —  and it’s all because of the Chiefs. 

Super Bowl LIX is quickly approaching, and the Chiefs’ 2025 playoff performances came with enough controversy to compel fans to seriously consider the possibility that the NFL may truly be rigged. 

The Chiefs’ first playoff game this season was against the Houston Texans, and it featured two questionable penalties against the Texans that elicited anger and confusion from the football community. One of the penalties, an unnecessary roughness call committed by the Texans against Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, was seen as so blatantly incorrect that even NFL commentator Troy Aikman exclaimed how he “could not disagree more.”

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The Texans eventually lost to the Chiefs 14 to 23, and multiple Texans players and personnel called out the NFL for its distasteful officiating in post-game interviews. Texans

running back Joe Mixon remarked how “the whole world will see” the referees’ favoritism, and defensive end Will Anderson Jr. said the Texans “knew” the game would be the Texans against the refs. Consequently, the NFL fined Mixon and Anderson Jr. $25,000 for their comments.

Even Texans Head Coach DeMeco Ryans spoke on the issue after the game.

“We knew going into this game, it was us versus everybody,” Ryans said. “When I say everybody, it’s everybody.” 

Football watchers were on high alert as the Chiefs prepared to face the Buffalo Bills in the AFC championship. During the game, another slew of bad calls brought unprecedented outrage from fans. The Bills were denied back-to-back 3rd & 3 and 4th and inches first down calls by controversial referee decisions, while Chiefs wide receiver Xavier Worthy was rewarded with a catch many Bills fans saw as incomplete. 

Bills General Manager Bradon Beane shared post-game that he firmly believes the Bills successfully achieved the first down. The NFL is now considering implementing optical tracking cameras to assist refs in more accurately tracking the ball.

The theory that the NFL is rigged, particularly in favor of the Chiefs, intensified with pop superstar Taylor Swift’s relationship with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. When the two started dating, the NFL shined in the media spotlight like never before. Kelce jersey sales skyrocketed over 400%, and the Chief’s Instagram account gained over 200,000 followers. The 2024 Super Bowl became the most viewed Super Bowl in NFL history with 123.7 million viewers, largely due to a 24% jump in viewership from 18 to 24-year-old women.

Last year, Swift generated over $330 million in brand value for the NFL through print and digital exposure, but her popularity continues to be a double-edged sword. Many NFL fans, including Whitman junior Sam Clement, attribute the Chiefs’ money-making potential as a means for scandalous officiating.

“The Chiefs have the ref advantage every single game,” Clement said. “The NFL just wants their viewership for Super Bowls. They want money.”

Multiple famous figures in the sports world have echoed this sentiment. Sports Radio host Stephen A. Smith acknowledged that viewers have a reason to be suspicious of the Chiefs, and football Hall-Of-Famer Terrell Owens called the favoritism shown to the Chiefs “blatant” and “obvious.” 

The media is particularly playing into this controversy, with one reporter asking Travis Kelce what he loves more: Taylor Swift or phantom 15-yard roughing the passer penalties in the playoffs. Later, Kelce even asked why the media was “leaning into the whole ref thing.”

Officiating crews have taken great offense to the pervasiveness of rigging accusations. The NFL Referees Association Executive Director Scott Green published a press release responding to these accusations. 

“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 said.

While confirmation bias can easily lead a casual NFL viewer to believe the Chiefs get special treatment, viewer sentiment and basic logic show there is another side of the story. While viral clips of controversial calls have fueled the rigged narrative, broader penalty data suggests otherwise. Whitman Junior Christian Armstrong is one football fan who disagrees with the theory.

“It would be very hard for the NFL to actually rig games without people finding out,” Armstrong said. “Some people don’t understand how serious of an accusation that is. The Chiefs still get plenty of calls against them, and teams still get chances to beat them.”

Penalty statistics on the Chiefs play a large role in disproving the conspiracy theory. The Chiefs ranked in the middle of the league at 16th in penalty differential, which contradicts the idea that referees give them a significant advantage. While roughing-the-passer calls on Patrick Mahomes get lots of attention, Mahomes ranks just 21st among active quarterbacks in drawing roughing-the-passer calls, far behind other well-known names like Josh Allen and Joe Burrow.

The narrative of the Chiefs cheating has grown so large that even NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had to address it himself, calling it a “ridiculous theory.” Ultimately, it is up to the football fans of America to decide how much longer they can tolerate the NFL’s decision-making.