It has become a pastime for NFL fans to complain that the Kansas City Chiefs get all the calls. And NFL officials keep giving them reasons to complain.
On Saturday it wasn’t just disgruntled non-Chiefs fans sounding off. ESPN’s Troy Aikman was not happy at all over an unnecessary roughness call on Patrick Mahomes that cost the Houston Texans 15 yards in an AFC divisional-round game at Arrowhead Stadium.
Mahomes was running around and slid at the last possible second. Two Texans defenders collided, Mahomes was barely hit, but the penalty was against Houston.
“Oh, come on! I mean, he’s a runner. I could not disagree with that one more. He barely gets hit.” – Troy Aikman”The two Houston players hit each other. That should not have been a foul.” – Russell Yurk
“They’ve gotta address it in the offseason…” – Aikman 🏈🎙️🦓 #NFL https://t.co/vXj2v7VTKg pic.twitter.com/QioQ5IQwhg
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 18, 2025
It wasn’t the only time the Chiefs had the benefit of a call in their 23-14 victory that put them in the AFC championship game for the seventh straight season.
There was a roughing the passer penalty on Will Anderson Jr. in the first half in which Anderson barely hit Mahomes. A hip-drop tackle on the Chiefs wasn’t penalized, though officials have rarely called that all season. The call when Mahomes ducked down and barely got hit was enough to infuriate Aikman.
“Oh, come on,” Aikman said on the broadcast as the call was being made.
“He’s a runner. I could not disagree with that one more and he barely gets hit,” Aikman said. “That’s the second penalty now that’s been called against the Texans.”
It’s worth noting that Aikman is a former quarterback. They usually stick together, but the call on Houston was so bad that Aikman had to stand up for the defensive players.
ESPN rules analyst Russell Yurk also said it was a bad call.
“Troy I agree with you. There’s no forcible contact to the head and neck area of him,” Yurk said. “The two Houston players hit each other and that should not have been a foul.”
The Chiefs kept moving the ball downfield after that call and Mahomes hit Travis Kelce for a touchdown and a 20-12 lead. Right before that TD pass, Aikman continued his disdain for the rules protecting QBs on a play where Mahomes was shoved out of bounds. This time, no penalty was called.
More from Aikman.
“He’s trying to draw the penalty. Rather than just run out of bounds, he slows down. And that’s been the frustration and I get it. I understand it. That’s been the frustration for these defensive players around the league.” https://t.co/rzfAXSaz6o pic.twitter.com/LilHhaI2Bh
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 18, 2025
Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans was asked about the calls that went against the Texans and he said he knew his team would be going against “everybody,” and that can be left to interpretation what he meant.
“We knew going into this game man, it was us vs. everybody,” Ryans said in his postgame media conference. “When I say everybody, it’s everybody. All the whatever, everybody. The naysayers, the doubt, right? Everybody, we had to go against today. With that, knowing going into this game knowing what we were going up against, we can’t make the mistakes we made.”
Texans defensive end Will Anderson Jr. put it bluntly during his postgame assessment of the loss.
“We knew it was going to be us against the refs going into this game,” Anderson said, via Will Kunkel of the Houston Fox affiliate.
The Chiefs are a great dynasty. On Saturday, most of the discussion had to do with how many calls they get from the officials. That’s probably not the look the league wants.
