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There'll be a huge spotlight on the officiating crew for this Sunday's Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. That's because fans are convinced this postseason has been rigged for the defending champions.
During the divisional round of the AFC playoffs, the Chiefs received a pair of favorable calls against the Houston Texans. Although the officiating wasn't as bad in the AFC Championship Game, momentum flipped in Kansas City's favor when the referees spotted Josh Allen short of the line to gain on a fourth-down run. That sparked more conspiracy theories about the NFL favoring the Chiefs.
Earlier this week, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell addressed that theory. He made it clear that he's tired of hearing that the league is "rigged" for the Chiefs.
"It’s a ridiculous theory, for anyone who might take it seriously," Goodell said.
Well, we learned this week that one person who takes this theory seriously is Hall of Fame wide receiver Terrell Owens.
Owens called out the NFL's officiating while on the "Is What It Is" podcast. He brought up the questionable calls from the Chiefs-Texans game.
"It's crazy because I played the game and I'm watching the game and I'm looking at all these calls that they're just, that's benefiting the Kansas City Chiefs," Owens said. "Look at the game before, against the Texans. [Patrick] Mahomes is smart, he's dinking around, he's causing the flag, you know what I mean? He's getting the benefit. He didn't even get hit. Fifteen-yard flag, the guy, Will Anderson, barely hit him. That can stop the momentum of the game. At that point in time, the Houston Texans were in the game. Those calls right there advance them, gives them extra downs. It changed the whole complexity of the game."
Owens then brought up last year's Super Bowl between the Chiefs and 49ers. He thinks the NFL "blatantly" fixed the game for Kansas City.
"You can even go back to the last couple of Super Bowls, even when the Niners played the Super Bowl. Look at all the holding calls. If you watched the tape, it was cray. They were getting clothes-lined and they were not calling it. It was blatant, blatant calls that were, like, obvious. It was blatant, it's unreal. I never would've thought I would say that I thought games were rigged, but somebody got plays, but it is unreal at the amount of all calls that are not called against the Kansas City Chiefs that are called against everybody else."
Make no mistake about it, Owens isn't the only person who believes the NFL is rigging games for the Chiefs.
It's just not often you hear a legendary player question the integrity of the league like this.
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