Either controversial penalties or blatant no-calls have been a recurring theme of the Kansas City Chiefs’ 2024 season. Seemingly every week the team and quarterback Patrick Mahomes benefits in some way from a debatable penalty call against the opposing defense or when referees swallow their whistle when it’s obvious to nearly everyone watching the game that a penalty should’ve been called. So with so much heat on the NFL and its referees for its apparent favoritism of Mahomes and the Chiefs, The Ringer NFL analyst Warren Sharp was quick to point out that the head of the officiating crew for Sunday’s matchup between the Chiefs and Las Vegas Raiders (with Kansas City’s undefeated record on the line) has a track record of calling games in favor of quarterbacks.
“This game was circled by the NFL, and you want to know what their reaction was? It was to put Adrian Hill as referee on this game when the time came,” Sharp said. “You know what Adrian Hill leads the NFL in? Roughing-the-passer penalties. Yup, he’s No. 1. He’s also No. 1 in neutral-zone penalties on the pass-rush. He’s also No. 2 in overall defensive penalties.” Antonio Pierce: we’re playing Patrick Mahomes with Jordan Rules and roughing him up
Warren’s comments are right on-the-nose considering what Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce said about Mahomes during the offseason, in which he said he encouraged his players to rough up Mahomes like the Detroit Pistons teams used to do to Michael Jordan back in the 1980s. “We’ve got what I’m calling now, from now on as long as I’m here, the Patrick Mahomes rules,” Pierce said at the time. “You remember when Jordan was going through it with the Pistons, all those guys in the ’80s before he became Michael Jordan, Air Jordan, the Pistons used to whip his a**.
“Any time he came to the hole – elbows, feeling him, love taps. We’re in his head, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, I’m touching you. So I showed my guys Jordan getting his [expletive] whooped.” One has to think the NFL purposely assigned Hill’s crew to the Raiders-Chiefs game specifically to ensure that Mahomes didn’t take an unnecessary beating.
