Patrick Mahomes talking to an NFL official. Fans already think the NFL refs have rigged the Chiefs-Bills game for Sunday.NFL ref and Patrick Mahomes (Photo by David Eulitt/Getty Images)


We’re still three days away from kickoff for the Kansas City Chiefs-Buffalo Bills game, and fans are already convinced that the NFL refs have “rigged” the game.

The Chiefs will visit the Bills in a highly-anticipated rematch of last season’s AFC Divisional Round thriller. While some folks anxiously await Patrick Mahomes vs. Josh Allen Part VIII, others believe the NFL refs have already fixed the game in favor of the visitors.

As noted by the popular @nflrefstats1 X/Twitter account, the Chiefs-Bills game will be officiated by Land Clark and his crew. That bodes well for Kansas City for several reasons.

Clark and his crew have called the most “illegal formation” calls this season, and the second-most “false starts.” Why is that significant? Because only the Chicago Bears have been penalized for more false starts than Buffalo, and Kansas City has been called for the second-fewest pre-snap infractions.

The account also noted that the Chiefs are 4-0 in road games called by Clark and his NFL refs. The home team is also a woeful 28-42-2 against the spread in games called by this crew, the account noted.

And with that, a flood of accusations about the NFL refs rigging the game have come in:

You’ll recall that the Bills won their regular season meeting in Kansas City last season thanks to a controversial “offside” call against Kadarius Toney that wiped out a potential game-winning touchdown late in the fourth quarter. On the bright side, the NFL refs avoided heavy scrutiny in the Chiefs-Bills Divisional Round Game.

NFL Refs Will Hopefully “Let Them Play” On Sunday

When it’s a showdown as juicy as the Chiefs and Bills, all the average fan can ask for is that the officials let them play. These two teams despise one another, and it’s likely going to get extra physical and handsy.

If the officials aren’t going to let the two teams play, they have to call the penalties fairly. If one team is getting penalized far more than the others, the “rigged” accusations from fans will only skyrocket.