With the success of the Kansas City Chiefs in the past couple of years, there has been an uprise in allegations that they are cheating by paying off the refs. But is there any merit to this? Before making a definitive opinion, one should look at evidence for and against these accusations.

The most common way the Chiefs are accused of cheating is by paying the referees to make bogus calls in their favor, with the main official being accused of taking bribes from the Chiefs organization being Clete Blakeman. The Chiefs records in games officiated by Blakeman are as follows:

⬝2018: 1-2

⬝2019: 1-0

⬝2020: 1-2

⬝2021: 0-1

⬝2022: 2-0

⬝2023: 0-1

⬝2024: 1-0

This comes out to an even 50/50 win loss ratio. As for evidence for the Chiefs cheating, even through extensive search there was not any legitimate nor credible evidence to be found that there are refs being paid off.

So why are these rumors so widespread? One explanation could be that due to the magnitude of the games that the Chiefs play in, more eyes are on the officials during these games and therefore, more people bearing witness to their mistakes. It could also be explained by people being sick of seeing the Chiefs and wanting someone new to be successful, so they blame the referees whenever the Chiefs get a win. All in all, are the Chiefs actually paying the refs? It’s unlikely, but if it is something that is going on in the shadows of the NFL, you can be sure we will hear about it someday, just like with deflategate.