NFL legend Terrell Owens has launched a sensational attack on the Kansas City Chiefs amid claims this season’s NFL playoffs have been ‘rigged’ for Patrick Mahomes and Co.
Mahomes and the Chiefs are gearing up for their third straight Super Bowl this weekend as they look to become the first team in history to pull off a famous ‘three-peat’.
On their latest run to football’s showpiece event, many have accused NFL referees of favoring Kansas City to help them in their three-peat bid.
Mahomes benefited from controversial calls in previous victories over the Buffalo Bills and the Houston Texans, leading to wild conspiracy theories about the playoffs being scripted for the Chiefs to prevail in New Orleans.
Yet in an astonishing outburst days out from their clash with the Philadelphia Eagles, Owens has suggested that the superstar quarterback and his team are only in another Super Bowl after getting the rub of the green from referees.
‘It’s crazy, because I played the game and I’m watching the game and I’m looking at all these calls that they’re just… that’s benefiting the Kansas City Chiefs,’ the legendary wide receiver said on the ‘Is What It Is’ podcast this week.
‘Look at the game before, against the Texans. Mahomes is smart, he’s dinking around, he’s causing the flag, you know what I mean?
‘He’s getting the benefit. He didn’t even get hit. 15-yard flag, the guy, Will Anderson, barely hit him. That can stop the momentum of the game. At that point in time, the Houston Texans were in the game.
‘Those calls right there advances them, gives them extra downs. It changed the whole complexity of the game.’
In their AFC Championship victory over the Bills, fans and analysts were left furious when Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen was ruled short of a potentially crucial first down early in the fourth quarter.
Mahomes also benefited from two contentious roughing calls in the Divisional round against Houston, before the Texans claimed it was ‘us against the refs’ on the night.
Yet prior to their win over the Bills, the Chiefs quarterback played down talk of any refereeing bias in their favor.
‘I’ve kind of learned that no matter what happens during the game, that something’s going to come out about it if you win and you continue to win, so I don’t really pay attention to it,’ Mahomes said on 96.5 The Fan, per the Kansas City Star.
‘I mean, obviously I’ve been on both sides of it as far as how I felt the calls were made, but at the end of the day, man, 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.’
