The only thing that could dislodge the NFL’s stranglehold on television is if sports viewers believe the games are rigged—that officiating is not on the level.

That’s why the league should follow the advice of analysts Troy Aikman of ESPN and Tom Brady of Fox Sports and take a hard look at whether the referees have gone overboard when it comes to protecting Patrick Mahomes and running quarterbacks.

There have been complaints for months that the league is playing favorites with Mahomes as the Chiefs gun for a historic third straight Super Bowl victory. (Vince Lombardi’s Packers won three straight NFL championships from 1965 to 1967, including Super Bowls I and II.) After all, Mahomes is the league’s biggest star. Throw in tight end Travis Kelce’s tabloid romance with Taylor Swift, which has attracted millions of new “Swifties” to pro football’s fan base, and the Chiefs have replaced the Cowboys as America’s Team.

But growing accusations of rigged games, and biased refs, reached a crescendo Saturday during the Chiefs’ 23–14 AFC divisional playoff win over the Texans. The officials twice penalized Houston for questionable hits on Mahomes: once for roughing the passer, the second time for unnecessary roughness. Both penalties extended Chiefs scoring drives.

To make matters worse, Mahomes performed his signature sideline shimmy, almost stopping along the white line until a defender gave him a shove, then flopping out of bounds in an attempt to draw a late hit flag. The zebras didn’t fall for his theatrics. But the two-time MVP’s antics were so obvious a fed-up Aikman couldn’t contain himself.

“You see, rather than just run out of bounds, he slows down,” Aikman noted. “That’s been the frustration. I get it, I understand. That’s been the frustration of these defensive players around the league.”

Previously during the telecast, the former Cowboys QB ripped a play in which Mahomes danced around and slid late. The two Texans tacklers mostly hit each other rather than Mahomes. But they were still flagged.

“They’ve got to address that in the offseason,” said Aikman. “You can’t, as a quarterback, run around and play games with defenders, then be able to draw a penalty.”

On Wednesday, Colin Cowherd asked Brady whether the league was “protecting” Mahomes. Without citing Mahomes by name, Brady said quarterbacks should lose their protection when they scramble out of the pocket.

“It’s just a disservice to the game,” said Brady. “It’s something I would hope that people would really address and say, ‘Not that anybody’s trying to take advantage of the rules, but they’ve just gone to a point where it does impact the quality of the game.’”

On Thursday, I spoke with Drew Brees. The Super Bowl XLIV winner noted the NFL’s instant replay systems are in position to get the call right, virtually all of the time. It just depends on what the league chooses to replay.

“I think the thing they should be taking a hard look at on replay are the game-changing plays,” said Brees, who’s teaming with Rob Gronkowski to promote Bounty paper towels. “Like roughing the passer. There’s always one of those calls a game where it’s like, ‘Was it or wasn’t it?’”

After their loss in Kansas City, some disgusted Texans players openly complained about the officiating.

“Everybody knows how it is playing up here. You can never leave it into the refs’ hands,” said running back Joe Mixon. “The whole world sees, man, what it is. When it comes down to it, you can never leave it into the refs’ hands. It’s all good, though.”

Mahomes denied this week that he and the Chiefs get special treatment. But even the 29-year-old admitted his sideline flop, with arms comically flailing above his head, was a bit much.

“The refs saw it, and it didn’t get a flag. I understood it immediately and know that I probably shouldn’t have done that,” Mahomes said.

For more on NFL legends calling for officiating changes, you can read Michael McCarthy’s full story here.

12% 

That’s how much viewership for ESPN’s coverage of the Ohio State vs. Notre Dame College Football Playoff national championship fell compared with last year’s Michigan vs. Washington. ESPN’s combined viewership for Buckeyes vs. Fighting Irish averaged 22.1 million as opposed to the 25.1 million viewers for the Wolverines vs. Huskies. That made it the fifth-least-watched national title game since the birth of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998, per Sports Media Watch.

“I believe so. I was just with the [ESPN] president the other day, Jimmy Pitaro, who is a great man and has always been good to me.” 

—Stephen A. Smith, talking about whether he’ll be able to finalize a contract extension with ESPN. “The greatest thing that you can say is when you have a boss that keeps their word. And Jimmy Pitaro has always, him right upstairs to Bob Iger, when they tell me something, they have followed through. Especially in the case of Jimmy Pitaro, there are things I have been allowed to do, talking politics and doing a lot of things. He came to me and gave me his word years ago. And he followed through,” Smith said. 

FOS has reported Smith is negotiating a five-year, $100 million contract.

• Both Chris “Mad Dog” Russo and Stephen A. Smith named the late Howard Cosell as the best sportscaster of all time on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show. Russo pointed to Cosell and Marv Albert; Smith suggested Cosell and Bryant Gumbel.
• Mike Golic and Mike Golic Jr. are exiting the DraftKings Network when their contracts expire in late March, FOS first reported. 
• FOS also first reported that the sponsorship deal between Fanatics and The Pivot podcast with Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder, and Fred Taylor quietly came to an end in late 2024. 
• Eli Manning has partnered with Knob Creek bourbon whiskey on a single-barrel collection. 
• As expected, NBC Sports named ironman broadcaster Mike Tirico its lead play-by-play voice for its return to NBA game coverage in the 2025–2026 season. Tirico previously called NBA games on ESPN for 15 seasons from 2002 to 2016.
• After promoting Mike McQuade to EVP of sports production, ESPN content czar Burke Magnus announced more changes this week. ESPN execs Tim Corrigan, Amanda Gifford, Mark Gross, Meg Aronowitz, Scott Favalora, Jack Obringer, Phil Orlins, and Linda Schulz will all report directly to McQuade. Corrigan and Gifford were both promoted to SVP sports production. On the original content side, José Morales, Marsha Cooke, Craig Lazarus, Heather Anderson, and Chantre Camack will report to SVP Brian Lockhart.