Throughout the season, fans leveled accusations at NFL officiating crews for rigging games in favor of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs – a charge the league fought back against.
While the NFL claimed multiple times that the referees were not aiding Kansas City at all, they didn’t exactly have much to go on other than ‘just trust us’.
Now, the league has released data they believe proves that point.
In a tweet by NFL Network’s Mike Garofolo, the league’s Football Operations developed a dataset they believe proves no link between the status of a quarterback and treatment from officials.
The particular data they were showing was ‘Fouls Drawn per 100 Hits’. Essentially, it asked how many times in 100 hits a quarterback benefitted from a personal foul for either ‘roughing the passer’ or ‘unnecessary roughness’.
Data examined every quarterback in the league who started multiple games for their teams – including Cooper Rush of the Dallas Cowboys and Jameis Winston of the Cleveland Browns, both of whom replaced injured starters.
The NFL released data showing how many personal fouls are called in favor of quarterbacks
It’s being seen as a way to address the accusations that have been dogging officials all season long: that they are purposely ‘rigging’ football games in favor of the Kansas City Chiefs
In particular, this data would address the calls given to Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes
| Player (team)[* – made playoffs] | Fouls | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tua Tagovailoa (Miami) | 7.32 |
| 2 | Josh Allen (Buffalo)* | 6.73 |
| 3 | Bryce Young (Carolina) | 5.45 |
| 4 | Cooper Rush (Dallas) | 4.88 |
| 5 | Kyler Murray (Arizona) | 4.00 |
| 6 | Jared Goff (Detroit)* | 3.81 |
| 7 | Baker Mayfield (Tampa Bay)* | 3.60 |
| 8 | Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City)* | 3.53 |
| 9 | Daniel Jones (New York Giants/Minnesota) | 3.41 |
| 10 | Aaron Rodgers (New York Jets) | 3.31 |
Mahomes did not top the list. That honor went to Tua Tagovailoa of the Miami Dolphins, who drew 7.32 personal foul calls per 100 hits last season.
Nor was Mahomes the top playoff quarterback in fouls drawn per 100 hits. Instead, that was found to be Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills.
However, Mahomes does rank within the top ten – drawing 3.53 fouls per 100 hits.
That mark puts him eighth in the league and fourth among playoff quarterbacks.
Of course, one stat doesn’t entirely paint the picture of whether or not rigging occurs or if it doesn’t.
A number of factors – especially the context of the situation – could apply to substantiate any claims of rigging games.
However, what this does at least prove is that the NFL’s officials aren’t going out of their way to call personal foul penalties in favor of Mahomes.
The ‘rigging issue’ has been an albatross for any NFL officiating crew that calls a game involving the Chiefs – and for the league as a whole.
Mahomes finished eighth on the list of QBs that gain the most favor from personal foul calls
Tua Tagovailoa (L) benefitted the most from those calls and Josh Allen (R) finished second
NFL Referees Association executive director Scott Green put out a statement the week of the Super Bowl that called the accusations ‘insulting’. Commissioner Roger Goodell was asked a question about it by the press and called the claims ‘ridiculous’.
An interesting point in the data set: four quarterbacks finished tied for last with an average of 0.0 fouls per 100 hits- with three of those QBs being on playoff teams.
Derek Carr of the New Orleans Saints finished tied for last, as did playoff-bound youngsters C.J. Stroud of the Houston Texans and rookie Bo Nix of the Denver Broncos.
The other player joining them in that club? Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts, who beat Mahomes and the Chiefs in resounding fashion.
