Many say that civil servants help bosses. Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes is not one of many.
“I don’t feel that“, Mahomes told reporters Wednesday, via Adam Teicher of ESPN.com. “At the end of the day, the referees do their best to call the game as fair and appropriate as possible. And all you can do It’s about going and playing the game you love as hard as you can and living with the results.
“You have new referees every year, you have new circumstances, and you can never really tell because every game is different and that’s what makes the NFL so special. I feel like I just kept playing, and I’m just trying to win, and whatever happens, happens.
With all due respect to those who regularly cover their skulls in aluminum foil, the NFL is neither scripted nor rigged. It would be impossible to achieve this and keep it secret.
That said, unconscious bias potentially impacts the behavior of public servants. During the 2022 season, Troy Vincent, NFL executive vice president of football operations defended the protection quarterbacks by pointing out that the NFL becomes a less popular product on television if top quarterbacks can’t play due to injury. Even if the 2023 season, which was marked by a rash of quarterback injuries, could have demystified that, the blurred line between the business of football and the integrity of football has the potential to plant a seed in the minds of officials who realize it’s good for business if a team like the Chiefs wins football games.
Decisions to call or not to call a penalty are made in an instant. Many factors influence whether or not the brain sends a message to the hand that is about to remove the yellow flag and throw it.
When officials hear that the football executive is defending the application of sanctions on the basis of commercial considerations, those commercial considerations necessarily creep into the stew that ultimately determines the analysis of when and where a flag is thrown.
The question now is whether the backlash against referees – coupled with a growing sense of boss fatigue – will push the needle in the other direction. If that happens, favor Bills.
