Kirby Lee - Imagn Images
People are sick and tired of watching the Kansas City Chiefs win. They will play in their fifth Super Bowl in six years this weekend, and to many fans, that’s because of help from the league’s referees.
On Monday, Roger Goodell did his annual Super Bowl week media availability live from New Orleans, the site of Super Bowl LIX. Goodell pushed back forcefully on the conspiracy that the NFL, through the referees, are putting their finger on the scale for the Chiefs.
Whenever a team wins as much as the Chiefs have in sports, conspiracy theories pop up. The fact that Taylor Swift, arguably the pop culture world’s biggest celebrity, is dating Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce has only ramped up the conspiracy theorists. They claim that the NFL wants the Chiefs to keep winning to keep Taylor Swift on television streams for brief cut-shots while non-football fans tune in to watch her.
That argument doesn’t really survive any logical scrutiny, but that doesn’t stop the conspiracy theorists. They were emboldened when the Chiefs were the beneficiaries of two close calls in the team’s dramatic AFC Championship win over the Buffalo Bills last weekend. Other close calls in past playoff games have gone their way. Even if many of those calls were indeed correct, fans use it as evidence that the referees are rigging games for the Chiefs.
Roger Goodell forcefully pushed against that narrative. Take a listen.
"That's a ridiculous theory — for anyone who might take it seriously. But at the end of the day, it's something we always have to continue to work on: How do we make our officiating better?"
– Roger Goodell when asked about public perception that referees are favoring the Chiefs pic.twitter.com/uA2YX7FE7s
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) February 3, 2025
Fans won’t believe him, because people love conspiracy theories in the face of evidence. But, it’s clear that Goodell thinks that the Chiefs conspiracy storyline is total nonsense.