All right, all right - we all read and see for ourselves in some games where it does appear that the refs are quick to throw the flag on the Chiefs opponent a lot. Or if you Mahomes or breathe on him, they will throw the flag for roughing the passer. There are tons of NFL memes out there making fun of this.
Do you honestly believe this or do you think that's hogwash and the refs don't favor the Chiefs?
yes mahomes takes advantage. dances around like he is a running back and drops on dime. these linebackers are running at full speed how do you expect a man to stop within half a second of tackling him. on top of that he is a flopper. biggest baby i there is. i thought brady was bad but mahomes has taken it to another level. two flags were momentum changers in the texan game
Mahomes has done some amazing things as far as the QB position there's none quite like him. I was glad when he won his first super bowl and didn't mind him winning another one but Brady stood in the way. After winning the next Super Bowl against Philly then you can tell start sensing something had changed. KC started to become a little more cocky when the refs showed more favoritism.
I honestly think Mahomes gets more favorable treatment than Brady ever had at the same point in their careers. The same hit for roughing the passer on Mahomes in the last game is a no flag for Lamar Jackson , Jalen Hurts, Jared Goff, Matt Stafford etc etc. I'm not liking where the NFL is going it's becoming a bit NBA-like with the flopping. Shame on you Mahomes.
@GMoneyGTown
This is not as clear cut an answer as it seems.
Refs are graded every week and at the end of the season. There is some perception that 'stars' get calls, like in the NBA. There may be some leeway given to them in the NFL. But I have not see anything to back it up. I have only seen data showing it to be more perception, than favoritism.
But I think a lot of this is coming from two things: elite QBs and good teams.
I read somewhere that Mahomes leads the league, since he came in, with INTs overturned by penalty. It was not even close. Rodgers was a distant second. The article then went on to say that the team that was complaining at the time was the Bengals. But that now Burrow had the most INTs overturned by penalty per throw and Mahomes was second in that category.
I have not verified the data myself, but it seems very, very reasonable.
I do not like that Mahomes tries to draw the 'flop foul'. But until they change it, it is hard to blame him. I do not like when he also acts like he is about to run out of bounds, or go down, and takes off again when the defense holds up.
But elite QBs will take advantage of the penalties they see -- or even the ones they 'anticipate' coming.
You see some trickeration from time to time. Like when Marino faked spiking the ball to stop the clock and then stood up and threw a TD.
But a more obvious example is a QB taking advantage of a clear 'free play'. Elite QBs are just better at this.
Some years back, I was at a game when Brady came to town. So, he was not getting 'home team' calls.
When you are at the game you will see different views than on TV. So, once in the game I saw him take a deep shot that was clearly covered and of course got picked. I was thinking, that was stupid. But Brady realized it was a free play. So, it go overturned. Then they went on to score.
So, I noticed he would do this from time to time, more than any other QB that I had noticed. QBs have always done this. But he would do it with a much higher chance of making a play or getting a PI call than other QBs had been doing -- most just took the 'safer' free play throw. Then a couple of times I saw him throw a 'free play' because of offsides and picked up a PI call -- which obviously was for more yardage. Then I saw him throw a couple times into coverage where it had to be that he was anticipating a PI because that was the only way it could be defended. For example, neither guy could really catch it. But the throw was not really high enough to call 'out of reach to catch', so the grab had to be called, etc.
So, I think elite QBs play for this thing more often than other QBs do. They almost 'force' the call to be made.
The second thing is that elite QBs, and therefore, usually, good teams take advantage of the calls more than most teams do.
In one of the articles, it was talking about Mahomes and Burrow made the other team pay for penalties at a higher rate than other teams did.
So, it is more perception in this sense also.
If a call is made for one of these QBs and they go on to score, it seems it benefited them more; it did not. They just are better at taking advantage of the penalties when they get called.
So, if you are on the other side of a bet than them, or they are playing against your team -- then you 'feel' like they are being favored by the refs.
This is also the same with turnovers. An elite QB will take advantage of these more as well.
Bottomline is that Brady, Burrow, Mahomes, and Rodgers are simply too good to give them extra chances, whether it is penalties or turnovers.
I will add a third component -- you see these guys play more. They are in a lot of nationally televised games and in more playoff games. So, you have more chances to enhance your 'perception' of them benefiting from a ref's call.
@Digitalkarma
I honestly think Mahomes gets more favorable treatment than Brady ever had at the same point in their careers.
The game was played completely differently back then. You can't even compare the two from the "same point in their careers" because the game is called so differently.
There was a montage of hits on Brady floating around the other day that I'll try to find. It was just a bunch of hits that no one was flagged for on Brady. All of them would be considered unnecessary roughness in today's game
Mahomes didn't start it..... Allen learned from the best.... aka.... Lebron and the NBA....an they learned it from watching Euro soccer.
https://x.com/BiasedSlightly/status/1350619854550794241
"If you aint cheatin then you aint tryin"..... isn't that the saying??
You got a point there. Different times. The whole player safety thing they try to enforce now has definitely shaded what is and isn't considered a legal hit and what should and shouldn't be called is much more subjective.
It's really tough on defenses unfortunately they probably get injured more than offensive players do defenders have to let up or tackle awkwardly and they get the brunt of the force.They didn't call flag on the hip drop tackle on Lamar last night and Dalton Schultz got hip dropped too no call. Fortunately, both players were okay.
I've seen that Brady clip you were referring to before he got popped so hard his helmet came flying off. Yea your right different era football but just needs to be called more consistently.
No taunting on Kelce stare down after catching the TD on the laying defender. Zay Flowers did the same thing last year on L'Jarius Sneed. Same exact stance but of course karma got him good for that lol.
@Digitalkarma
Yea your right different era football but just needs to be called more consistently.
What exactly leads you to think that it is inconsistently called? Is it just a play, here and there, that you have seen?
I am asking if you have watched all of one star QB’s plays this year and all of a non-star’s plays to compare?
Or, like I posited above, do you think we just ‘feel’ that way because we see more of the various star’s plays?
I wonder how quantifiable this is? Or if it is just our ‘feeling’?
@Latrobe76
But the implication is that the non-greats have not, or at least not as much.
Do we just see it happen more with the greats and assume it is more because they are great?
Its not Mahomes fault if the refs treat the Chiefs with kid gloves. I don't like/dislike the Chiefs, but if they can gain an advantage because the refs give in to them, good for the chiefs.
The issue is with the officials. Personally I feel the refs don't have a clue what they should and shouldn't call anymore.
@Raiders22
Thanks for you long thoughtful post. I certainly think there are elements in your post that hold true leaving us fans the "impression" that Mahomes and the Chiefs get favorable treatment. To add to your points, the Chiefs have played a lot of playoff games at home and i think they may get more "home calls" so again the refs being human may have a tendency to throw the flag more when 80,000 fans throw their hands up. I do think in all sports once an athlete becomes a superstar there tends to be a tendency where they are protected more. Does the NFL really want a Brady or a Mahomes get injured and be done for a season? Just saying. You seem to be a person who wants data or actual instances versus our belief....I cannot give you instances but i think a lot of people have seen hits against Mahomes which seem petty but yet flags are thrown. We see the same hits against other QBs and no flag is thrown .....anecdotal evidence I guess.
Anyhow it is why i posed this question...do teams go into KC face not only the Chiefs but the refs? Do teams go into KC and must play a perfect game to beat KC? Do teams and players go into KC with this impression also....
@GMoneyGTown
Yeah. I like data to support my 'feelings'. Because so often I have been proven wrong about something I felt.
I think if the refs were doing it that it would show up in their evaluations. I just have not seen that.
I also think when one star wins and is on the big stage as much as Mahomes is, it seems like it more and more that he gets the calls.
Because ever year he is beating someone else's team. It is human nature when a 'borderline' call goes against us that we think favoritism is happening.
Maybe starts are subconsciously protected by refs. But I doubt it. Because I have also been rooting FOR them and upset when they did NOT get a call.
So, I am not so sure. I think is a matter of perspective.
There is a ref thread from this week. In some of those ref studies and breakdowns on the sites, you can look at each crew and see how they do in each game and at home and away, etc.
Maybe, somewhere a study has been done showing Elite QBs get more borderline calls. I may look around later.
How quantifiable is it? Easy. When millions of viewers, talk show/radio hosts, opposing players, former players are seeing and saying the same thing.. lack of consistency, preferential treatment etc. Should this be treated as some sort of strange "phenomena" like a UFO sighting ? Shit is all on tape on the all-22 Lol
Established in 1995,
what do you think? 
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