We are down to the final four! The Divisional round is over. It was a great and fun weekend with a big surprise win by the Commanders. Before I dive into the rankings, let’s address the thing everyone is talking about, the Refs. And specifically the Refs during the Chiefs game. There were two questionable calls that have everyone who isn’t a Chiefs fan or a person who watches many football games every week all upset. There are three issues here. First the actual calls in questioned, second the officiating across the NFL and third the reactions by everyone. Let’s dive in.

If you watched the game you saw a roughing the passer call and then later on an unnecessary roughness call. Both of these were on defenders who made contact to Patrick Mahomes. First of all, I am a massive Chiefs fan so I am not completely unbiased. But the truth is none of us are. Most if not all of the people who are really upset and think these are horrible calls hate the Chiefs. My dad watches Fox News all the time. Shockingly, he is not a big Biden fan. I have other family members who watch CNN or MSNBC all the time. Guess what, they are not big Trump fans. We tend to agree with and watch things that already side with our opinions. While I am a die hard Chiefs fan, I try to be as unbiased as I can. I can say I didn’t like either call. I thought they were both borderline at best and probably shouldn’t have been called. But in full speed before we watched the instant replay over and over again in slow motion, they both looked like fouls. This is the view the refs have. Full speed. In both cases there was contact to Mahomes head area although minor and not that forceable. On the first play, there is contact to Pat’s face mask. It is minor and not that forceable. Pat did sell it to some extent and looked up at the ref to see if a flag would be thrown. This is what smart quarterbacks do in the league. Everyone’s current favorite NFL son, Josh Allen is one of the best at doing this. This is partially why he leads the league in Roughing the passer calls. Pat is in the middle of the pack. I understand the Texans frustration on this one, as it was 3rd and 8. And it led to a first down and an eventual field goal. But everyone is acting like this is the PI call that didn’t get called in the Saints game a few years back. It wasn’t that bad of a call. They even reviewed it but the rule is if there is contact to the head area it cannot be overturned. Which is why the play stood because there was contact to the head area. The second penalty was worse but more of the same. Troy Aikman made a big deal about how it is unfair the way that quarterbacks are sliding late. I completely agree. However, this wasn’t why they called a penalty. The problem was not that they hit him while sliding. The problem was the defender lead with his head and made contact with Pat’s head. Again it wasn’t minor and not forceable and I don’t think it should have been called. But again at full speed it looked like he hit him in the head more forceable than he did. The defender actually was helped out by his fellow defender who ran into him. I didn’t like the call. But a couple things people are ignoring. First of all on first down, there was a terrible hold call on Trey Smith. The guy basically just fell down and Trey got called for holding. Troy Aikman glazed over that call because it didn’t fit his narrative for the day. Pacheco ran for 9 or 10 yards on the replay of the first down. Than Mahomes scrambled for 4 yards and then slid. Without the penalty it would have been like 3rd and 5. Hardly something that the Chiefs couldn’t have overcome. So sure they got a few extra yards out of it but hardly the end of the world. And again, this wasn’t the most awful call in the world. Pat didn’t help things by flopping on the sideline later on. Which is too bad because while he does play up the stuff in the pocket at times and definitely plays the tight rope on the sideline but he is not usually a flopper. Again, Josh Allen is the king of flops. In fact Jets and Patriots fans have made montages of clips of him flopping. Bottom line, these weren’t great calls but they were hardly the worst calls in playoff history or anything. Much of this has been exasperated by Joe Buck and Aikman who spent more time talking about these two plays than Mahomes throwing a td while basically being parallel to the ground. Or the fact that “washed up” Travis Kelce was going off. Buck is always annoying and terrible. But Aikman is very passionate about the rules being too soft on quarterbacks. I’m sure this has something to do with things being different in his day. I get it. I love 80s and 90s NBA basketball for the same reason. Brady says the same things as Troy. The difference is that they changed all the rules for Brady and not for Aikman. I think Aikman got caught up in that and lost his professional edge and let the broadcast get away from him. He will probably not agree with that or admit that and that is fine. He’s a grown man he can say what he wants. The other thing that exasperated this was the Texans complaining after the game and saying they knew it would be this way going in. Their coach even said they knew it would be them against everyone. Well if they knew this, then why weren’t they prepared for it? This is a loser’s mentality. And part of why they lost. The other reasons they lost were the fact that they gave up 8 sacks, only scored 1 touchdowns and had horrendous special teams throughout. And for some reason they decided not to cover the greatest playoff tight end of all time. But sure, they lost because the refs got two calls wrong.

Here’s the deal, officiating is hard in every sport. It’s even harder when it comes to the pros. Everything moves faster. NFL officiating is not great but I do not think it is the worst in all sports. That title goes to college basketball. But they need to improve. I understand being upset about poor officiating. That I would get. But that’s not what this is. This is about hating the Chiefs. There were two horrendous calls in the other AFC divisional game as well. The first was a terrible Defensive PI call on the ravens that led to an easy Bills TD. I was chatting with two friends who hate the Chiefs. They both thought it was an awful call but they were unphased by that one. Later on Lamar got tackled like 5 yards out of bounds and nothing was called. Tony Romo handled both calls like a professional and acknowledged that they were questionable. But he didn’t lament on them through the rest of the game. That along with people liking the Bills and hating the Chiefs have made everyone basically ignoring these two calls that were both worse than the two calls in the Chiefs game.

But the Chiefs get all the calls! Well not actually. They are one of the more penalized teams. They aren’t getting all the calls. Facts don’t care about your feelings. What is true is they have less penalties in the playoffs. And less than their opponents every game…for 11 straight playoff games. I’m not saying that the Chiefs don’t get the benefit of a doubt here or there. That’s what great teams do. Jordan and the Bulls got calls. Kobe and the Lakers got calls. Brady and the Pats got calls. In fact, in Pat’s first AFC championship game there were two calls that impacted the game. The first call was an awful roughing the passer on Chris Jones when he hit Tom Brady in the chest with his arm. It was obviously not the correct call and was more horrendous than either call on Saturday. Then on a Brady interception, Dee Ford got called for being offsides. Typically a guy gets a warning and this is a call they miss all the time. And to top things off, it went to overtime and then the Chiefs never got to touch the ball. The same thing happened a few years later when the Chiefs beat the Bills and they changed the rules. Was it rigged for the Patriots? Did the league really want to force us all to watch them win the most boring Super Bowl in our lifetime? Or was it just a bad call by the official on the Jones rough call? And also, maybe because the Chiefs are good team and really well coached, they get better from a penalty standpoint in the playoffs.

What’s most funny to me is many in the media embracing the mob mentality and giving in to the notion that the Chiefs are cheaters, the league is rigged, blah, blah, blah. Rich Eisen who I like, said that every roughing the passer call needs to be reviewed. Rich is usually a calm and reasonable commentator. But even he has gotten sucked into this nonsense. First of all, it was reviewed and they let the play stand. And remember that year that teams could challenge pass interference? It was a complete disaster and nothing ever got overturned and everyone hated it and they took it away the following year. The same thing would happen here. And for all those who call the Chiefs cheaters…that is the dumbest thing ever. There is no deflated balls. There is no spying on other teams. This is just simply a resilient team that finds a way to win in all sorts of circumstances. They are in other teams heads and now in the heads of all NFL fans across the country. And for those that think things are rigged, why would they rig it for a small market team in the middle of the country and why do big market teams like the Giants and Jets suck every year? The NFL doesn’t want us to win. They are a league built on parody. And there is parody in the league. Different teams get to lose to the Chiefs every year. During this run we have beaten every team in the AFC playoffs besides our divisional opponents who we have won the division over the last 9 years and the Jets and the Patriots. The Patriots beat us and then haven’t done anything since and the Jets haven’t made the playoffs in like 22 years. So I get it. I’d hate us too. So if it helps you sleep at night to call us cheaters or say it is rigged, that is fine. But I appreciate greatness. I never hated the Patriots even after they beat us. I never thought the league was rigged even after their cheating scandals. I saw a team that found a way to win. I didn’t hate the Bulls. I hated the Yankees but I hated the Yankees in the middle of the 80’s and early 90s when they weren’t winning anything. But I understand that I am unusual. So hate on my friends. But don’t hate too much. It’s not good for you and you just might miss something special and historic while you are hating…like a 3 peat.

Now here are this week’s rankings:

4. Team of destiny: Commanders

The Commanders are doing things with a rookie quarterback that no one thought was possible. They are incredible. They went into the Lions Den and dominated. They are ranked 4th because I just don’t see how they can keep this up and I don’t trust their defense. But I sure do trust Jayden Daniels and I will no longer be shocked or surprised by anything he does.

3. Fly Eagles Fly: Eagles

I don’t trust their coach or coaching especially after calling a bootleg with their quarterback who only had one good leg when they should have been running the clock out with the best running back in the league. But all these guys do is win. They are probably the most talented team left. And their defense is better than the Commanders so they get the slight advantage here.

2. In Josh we trust: Bills

Everyone who isn’t a Chiefs fan is trusting in Josh to beat the Chiefs. They look good and just might be the team to do it. If they do, I like their chances in the Super Bowl. My main hesitation is they are still the Bills. And until the beat the Chiefs when it matters, it is hard to believe they will.

1. Haters gonna hate, hate, hate: Chiefs

The hate is real. But so is a team that has won back to back super bowls and 16 games this year. Until they lose, they deserve to be number 1.

Tune in tomorrow for the top 10 things to watch during the conference championships!