It has become a pastime for NFL fans to complain that the Kansas City Chiefs are getting all the calls. And NFL officials continue to give them reasons to complain.
On Saturday, it wasn’t just disgruntled non-Chiefs fans who sounded off. ESPN’s Troy Aikman was not at all happy with an unnecessary roughness call on Patrick Mahomes that cost the Houston Texans 15 yards in an AFC divisional round match at Arrowhead Stadium.
Mahomes ran around and slid at the last possible second. Two Texans defenders collided, Mahomes was narrowly hit, but the penalty was against Houston.
“Oh, come on! I mean, he’s a runner. I couldn’t disagree with that more. He’s barely hit.’ -Troy Aikman
“The two Houston players touched each other. That should not have been a foul.” -Russell Yurk
“They need to tackle it in the offseason…” – Aikman 🏈🎙️🦓 #NFL https://t.co/vXj2v7VTKg pic.twitter.com/QioQ5IQwhg
— Terrible announcement (@awfulannouncing) January 18, 2025
It wasn’t the only time the Chiefs had the advantage of a call in their 23-14 victory, which put them in the AFC championship game for the seventh straight season.
There was a tough passer penalty on Will Anderson Jr. in the first half, in which Anderson barely touched Mahomes. A hip-drop tackle on the Chiefs was not penalized, although officials have rarely called it all season. The call when Mahomes dove down and was barely hit was enough to infuriate Aikman.
“Oh, come on,” Aikman said on air as the phone rang.
“He’s a runner. I couldn’t disagree with that more and he barely gets hit,” Aikman said. “That is the second penalty called against the Texans now.”
It’s worth noting that Aikman is a former quarterback. Usually they stick together, but the call for 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 is no forced contact to the head and neck area of him,” Yurk said. “The two Houston players touched each other and that should not have been a foul.”
The Chiefs continued to move the ball downfield after that call and Mahomes hit Travis Kelce for a touchdown and a 20-12 lead. Just before that TD pass, Aikman continued his disdain for the rules protecting QBs on a play in which Mahomes was pushed out of bounds. This time no penalty was awarded.
More from Aikman.
“He’s trying to draw the penalty. Instead of just walking out of bounds, he’s slowing down. And that’s been the frustration and I understand it. I understand it. That’s been the frustration for these defensive players in the league .” https://t.co/rzfAXSaz6o pic.twitter.com/LilHhaI2Bh
— Terrible announcement (@awfulannouncing) January 18, 2025
Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans was asked about the calls against the Texans and he said he knew his team was going to go against “anyone,” and that may be left up to interpretation as to what he meant.
“We knew going into this game, man, it was us against everyone,” Ryans said at his postgame media conference. “When I say everybody, it’s everybody. Everything, anything, everybody. The naysayers, the doubt, right? Everybody, we had to go against each other today. With that, knowing that we were going into this game, knowing where we had to deal with, we can’t make the mistakes we made.”
Texans defensive end Will Anderson Jr. said bluntly during his post-match assessment of the loss.
“We knew it was going to be us against the referees going into this game,” Anderson said, via Will Kunkel of the Houston Fox affiliate.
The Chiefs are a great dynasty. Most of the discussion Saturday was about how many calls they get from officials. That’s probably not the look the league wants.