Mike Pereira walked out to his spot during Super Bowl media day and was greeted by a larger contingent of reporters than usual for an officiating expert when there were Super Bowl-winning coaches and players around the room.”You know there’s something wrong,” he said.Video above: Kansas City Chiefs DE George Karlaftis says Travis Kelce is ‘unselfish’For the past few weeks, the officials have been nearly as big of a story as the players on the field thanks to mostly online conspiracy theories that NFL officials are biased in favor of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.It’s an allegation that Pereira called a misguided “myth,” that Commissioner Roger Goodell called “ridiculous” and the head of the officiating union called “insulting.” But the feeling still persists among some headed into the Super Bowl matchup on Sunday between the Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.”I’m sad that it’s the story,” said Pereira, who has worked as an on-field official, the head of the NFL officiating department and now serves as the officiating expert in Fox’s broadcast booth. “I think it puts more pressure on the officials on Sunday. They’re not going to officiate the game any differently, but they know they’re going into the game as part of the story, which doesn’t usually happen. … I feel badly for the officials. I feel badly for the game, because from our standpoint, (favoritism) just doesn’t happen.”A handful of high-profile calls in the playoffs that have gone in Kansas City’s favor have fueled the theories of favoritism, with Houston getting penalized for two illegal hits on Mahomes in the divisional round and Josh Allen being ruled just short of converting a fourth-and-1 sneak in Kansas City’s 32-29 victory over Buffalo in the AFC championship game.Video below: House divided: Will the new baby be a Chiefs or Eagles fan?But a deeper look at all penalties shows no signs of systematic bias. The Chiefs have been penalized for 120 more yards than their opponents in the regular season and playoffs since the start of the 2022 playoffs.Kansas City has also benefited from 10 fewer first downs by penalty on third or fourth down in that span and has had only a small edge in penalty-yard differential in the fourth quarter or overtime of close games. Pereira said the content of the criticism isn’t much different than what he heard as the head of officiating from 2001-09 but intensity is different thanks to the modern media environment.”I didn’t have social media to deal with,” he said. “Everything grows so fast in social media now. You have zero control over it and little things can grow so quickly that the whole world knows them.” Officiating analyst Dean Blandino, who was the NFL’s vice president of officiating from 2013-17, said he believes that the NFL should be more transparent about officiating by allowing TV broadcasts to air discussions between officials and the replay crew like has been done in some spring leagues to gain more trust with fans.Video below: WATCH: Cincinnati Zoo’s Fiona picks Super Bowl winnerBut he said the league would be able to root out any bias because it studies how officials fare on calls with every team, for home and road teams, and even depending on which sideline they are on to try to determine if there are any outliers.”I can’t think of a profession that is evaluated and critiqued more,” he said. “They’re evaluated in the moment, we got replay, we got coaches, you’ve got the media and you’ve got the fans. They’re evaluated on their performance internally. If an official is giving preferential treatment to a team or player, it will be kind of fleshed out and they’ll know the league will understand.”Blandino and Pereira both said officiating mobile quarterbacks like Mahomes can be more difficult because of the fine line between protecting quarterbacks from unnecessary big hits to making sure the defense can make stops.That led to some controversy in the Chiefs’ win over the Texans with Houston getting penalized for hitting Mahomes in the helmet following a late slide but officials correctly ignoring a flop by Mahomes on the sideline later in the game. “When you think about the numbers, the last three or four years, Mahomes is probably middle of the road in terms of the number of calls he’s got,” Blandino said. “But he does do a good job of pushing that envelope, especially on the sideline. Officials have to be aware of it.”Pereira said the key for the crew Sunday led by referee Ron Torbert is to block out any noise and approach the game like any other in the season.”Subconsciously, it’s always been shown that there’s a lesser number of penalties in the playoffs and specifically the Super Bowl. I think because they want to stay out of the story if they can,” he said. “They’ll be nervous and they’ll think about it once the kick off goes and once they get to about the third play, they’ll settle into their routine and on they go. I wouldn’t want to put any thoughts in their minds.”
Mike Pereira walked out to his spot during Super Bowl media day and was greeted by a larger contingent of reporters than usual for an officiating expert when there were Super Bowl-winning coaches and players around the room.
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“You know there’s something wrong,” he said.
Video above: Kansas City Chiefs DE George Karlaftis says Travis Kelce is ‘unselfish’
For the past few weeks, the officials have been nearly as big of a story as the players on the field thanks to mostly online conspiracy theories that NFL officials are biased in favor of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
It’s an allegation that Pereira called a misguided “myth,” that Commissioner Roger Goodell called “ridiculous” and the head of the officiating union called “insulting.”
But the feeling still persists among some headed into the Super Bowl matchup on Sunday between the Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
“I’m sad that it’s the story,” said Pereira, who has worked as an on-field official, the head of the NFL officiating department and now serves as the officiating expert in Fox’s broadcast booth. “I think it puts more pressure on the officials on Sunday. They’re not going to officiate the game any differently, but they know they’re going into the game as part of the story, which doesn’t usually happen. … I feel badly for the officials. I feel badly for the game, because from our standpoint, (favoritism) just doesn’t happen.”
A handful of high-profile calls in the playoffs that have gone in Kansas City’s favor have fueled the theories of favoritism, with Houston getting penalized for two illegal hits on Mahomes in the divisional round and Josh Allen being ruled just short of converting a fourth-and-1 sneak in Kansas City’s 32-29 victory over Buffalo in the AFC championship game.
Video below: House divided: Will the new baby be a Chiefs or Eagles fan?
But a deeper look at all penalties shows no signs of systematic bias. The Chiefs have been penalized for 120 more yards than their opponents in the regular season and playoffs since the start of the 2022 playoffs.
Kansas City has also benefited from 10 fewer first downs by penalty on third or fourth down in that span and has had only a small edge in penalty-yard differential in the fourth quarter or overtime of close games.
Pereira said the content of the criticism isn’t much different than what he heard as the head of officiating from 2001-09 but intensity is different thanks to the modern media environment.
“I didn’t have social media to deal with,” he said. “Everything grows so fast in social media now. You have zero control over it and little things can grow so quickly that the whole world knows them.”
Officiating analyst Dean Blandino, who was the NFL’s vice president of officiating from 2013-17, said he believes that the NFL should be more transparent about officiating by allowing TV broadcasts to air discussions between officials and the replay crew like has been done in some spring leagues to gain more trust with fans.
Video below: WATCH: Cincinnati Zoo’s Fiona picks Super Bowl winner
But he said the league would be able to root out any bias because it studies how officials fare on calls with every team, for home and road teams, and even depending on which sideline they are on to try to determine if there are any outliers.
“I can’t think of a profession that is evaluated and critiqued more,” he said. “They’re evaluated in the moment, we got replay, we got coaches, you’ve got the media and you’ve got the fans. They’re evaluated on their performance internally. If an official is giving preferential treatment to a team or player, it will be kind of fleshed out and they’ll know the league will understand.”
Blandino and Pereira both said officiating mobile quarterbacks like Mahomes can be more difficult because of the fine line between protecting quarterbacks from unnecessary big hits to making sure the defense can make stops.
That led to some controversy in the Chiefs’ win over the Texans with Houston getting penalized for hitting Mahomes in the helmet following a late slide but officials correctly ignoring a flop by Mahomes on the sideline later in the game.
“When you think about the numbers, the last three or four years, Mahomes is probably middle of the road in terms of the number of calls he’s got,” Blandino said. “But he does do a good job of pushing that envelope, especially on the sideline. Officials have to be aware of it.”
Pereira said the key for the crew Sunday led by referee Ron Torbert is to block out any noise and approach the game like any other in the season.
“Subconsciously, it’s always been shown that there’s a lesser number of penalties in the playoffs and specifically the Super Bowl. I think because they want to stay out of the story if they can,” he said. “They’ll be nervous and they’ll think about it once the kick off goes and once they get to about the third play, they’ll settle into their routine and on they go. I wouldn’t want to put any thoughts in their minds.”
