Patrick Mahomes addresses belief he receives extra protection from NFL officials

If you’re in the camp that believes Patrick Mahomes receives preferential treatment from NFL officials, just know that the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback disagrees with you.

Mahomes, speaking with the media on Wednesday ahead of Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against the Buffalo Bills, said he doesn’t feel like he gets extra protection from referees.

“I don’t feel that way,” Mahomes said, via Cameron Wolfe of NFL Network. “I just try to play football at the end of the day. The referees are doing their best to call the game as fair and as proper as they can.”

The belief that Mahomes and the Chiefs benefit from calls during games is shared by many fans outside the state of Missouri. But it came to a head in this past Saturday’s AFC Divisional Round victory over the Houston Texans.

First came a roughing the passer penalty called on Texans edge rusher Will Anderson in the first quarter. As Anderson converged on Mahomes as he was attempting a pass, he made slight contact with Mahomes’ helmet. The penalty gave Kansas City a fresh set of downs and the Chiefs ended the drive with a field goal.

Later in the game, Texans linebacker Henry To’oTo’o received an unnecessary roughness penalty for making contact with the helmet of a sliding Mahomes. Defensive tackle Folorunso Fatukasi appeared to make more contact with his own teammate than To’oTo’o did with Mahomes. That didn’t matter and Houston picked up another costly penalty. NFL Senior Vice President of Officiating Walt Anderson said both calls were correct during a Sunday appearance on “NFL GameDay” on NFL Network.

Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes chasing historic three-peat

“I’ve learned that no matter what happens during the game, something is going to come out about it if you win, if you continue to win,” Mahomes said. “I don’t really pay attention to it. Obviously, I’ve been on both sides of it as far as how I’ve felt that calls were made. But at the end of the day, those guys are doing their best to make the best calls. And keep it to where the players are making the plays in the game and that’s what decides the outcome.

“Obviously, there was a call here and there that people didn’t agree with. But at the same time, I think there were a lot of other plays that decided the outcome of that football game.”

Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis conducted a deep dive into the Chiefs’ recent playoff history and found some interesting data. In 11 playoff games over the last four years, the Chiefs have had fewer penalties in all of them. When you break that down even further, seven roughing the passer penalties have been called on Chiefs opponents, compared to just one on Kansas City. 11 defensive pass interference/defensive holding penalties have been called on their opponents, just two on Kansas City.

Of course, a lot of that can be contributed to the discipline of Kansas City under head coach Andy Reid. After all, there’s a reason the Chiefs have won three Super Bowls since 2019 and are two wins away from an unprecedented three-peat.