The NFL Refs Need an Overhaul

If you think the NFL officiating was bad on Sunday, that's a massive understatement. They were bad during the Philadelphia Eagles' 31-7 win over the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game, but they were a million times worse in the Kansas City Chiefs' 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.

Harrison Butker kicked the game-winning 40-yard field goal with three seconds remaining in regulation. Let's talk about the play that set that up. It was like a third-and-four for the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes was running towards the sidelines and Joseph Ossai "pushed him out of bounds." They flagged him for a 15-yard "roughing penalty" but let's be real, Patrick Mahomes flopped on that play.

He was barely touched and he was still running out of bounds. Anyhow, by the way, that game was going, they probably would have called that a penalty anyways because the Kansas City Chiefs were getting all of the calls and the Cincinnati Bengals were getting no favors from the referees. They wanted Kansas City to win so badly it was so obvious.

Also in a tie game in the AFC Championship Game, you don't let a play like that decide the game, especially since it is ticky-tack. It wasn't egregious by any means. Players should be deciding the outcomes of football games, not referees. This felt the same case as it was during the non-pass inference call in the NFC Championship Game a few years ago between the Los Angeles Rams and the New Orleans Saints.

https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/status/1619893693976313856 This was the play that cost the Cincinnati Bengals the game better the "letter of the law" but it felt like they made things up as the game went on.

There were two other instances in this football game when the refs were on Kansas City's side. The first one was where a play occurred on a third-and-nine, and the Bengals forced a fourth down, but the refs felt like the play didn't count, so they redid it.

The second play was the phantom pass interference call against Mike Hilton in the fourth quarter which was just a bang-bang play.

https://twitter.com/_MLFootball/status/1619895763903066112

This Twitter account chimed in on the NFL officiating.

Lastly, other fans as well chimed in:

https://twitter.com/BobMenery/status/1619885289216045058

It makes you wonder like if these NFL games are predetermined like the WWE is. This is why NFL fans, including myself, think games are rigged for ratings amongst other things. It was clear as the day they wanted quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl this season.

The NFL refs probably know who they bet on also and what the spread is. There needs to be an investigation on whether or not these NFL refs bet on games beforehand and this will be a major storyline sooner rather than later. The head referee for this football game was Ronald Tolbert and there are jokes over the internet about them two doing jersey swaps after the game was over.

New York Giants defensive end/EDGE rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux thinks that referees should be able to do postgame interviews like the players and the coaches do. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has a mess on his hands with the officiating and it needs to be fixed in the offseason. These predetermined outcomes by the NFL referees need to be stopped.