Is there an officiating conspiracy in the NFL? Do fans think so? Take part in our daily poll to share your view.
NFL officiating has been questionable for years, and few would argue otherwise. Watch any game, and you’ll easily find fans convinced their team was wronged by the referees. This isn’t just biased perception—missed calls happen frequently. Nearly every game features a few uncalled holding penalties, questionable pass interference flags, and if you look closely enough, you might even catch an unnoticed offsides.
Talk of officiating conspiracies has surged in recent years, especially after Arian Foster joked on a podcast that the NFL was scripted. The debate resurfaced this week when the Detroit Lions fell to the Kansas City Chiefs—a game in which the Chiefs had just one declined penalty. That made them the first team since 1972 to finish a game without an accepted penalty. As usual, fans dissected the footage, highlighting what they believe were “clear” officiating errors.
While much of this can be chalked up to passionate fandom, some people are actively searching for proof of a larger scheme. A study from the University of Texas at El Paso suggested that the Chiefs benefited from certain penalties far more often than other teams in playoff games. However, critics argue the research only focused on playoff data because regular-season trends actually show the opposite.
