Tom Brady isn’t buying the referee favoritism noise around the Chief that is clouding much of the Super Bowl 2025 conversation.
During an interview on “Fox & Friends” on Friday, the seven-time Super Bowl champ turned Fox NFL analyst pushed back against the narrative that the NFL’s officials strongly favor the Chiefs, especially in playoff scenarios, or really any team in the league.
“I think it’s just all BS. It’s just a bunch of noise,” Brady said. “These refs have very challenging jobs to do. I’m very happy Twitter didn’t exist during the Tuck Rule Game in 2001, let me say that. I would’ve been on the wrong end on a lot of those. But these refs are out there trying to do their very best.
“They got to make decisions in a split second and they’re gonna call what they see and these guys are some of the most professional people on the field. They just want to do a good job like everyone else. And look, sometimes the calls go your way, sometimes they don’t. In the end, over the course of a 140-play game on both sides of the ball, the players have plenty of opportunities to go out there and make an impact in the game, winning or losing, and that’s what I’m excited to see on Sunday night.”
It’s not a surprising answer from the former Patriots and Buccaneers quarterback, as he also is a minority owner of the Raiders.
Brady will be calling the Super Bowl for the first time alongside his Fox booth partner Kevin Burkhardt when the two-time defending champion Chiefs face the Eagles on Sunday from Casears Superdome.
The theory, however, does have numbers to back up those who believe the Chiefs are getting the benefit of a good whistle.
Kansas City has had 41 penalties against them in their last 12 playoff games while their opponents have had 72 thrown their way. Their opponents were also called for more defensive pᴀss interference, defensive holding, roughing the pᴀsser, unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conducts.
Additionally, in the 11 playoff games from 2021 through the divisional round, the Chiefs never recorded more penalties than their opponent. Against the Texans this year in the divisional round, several questionable roughing the pᴀsser and unnecessary roughness penalties were issued against Houston.
It continued in the AFC Championship game against the Bills that saw Buffalo rack up six penalties against the Chiefs’ five.
The game also included a questionable fourth-down call — when it appeared that quarterback Josh Allen may have earned a first down on a fourth-down quarterback sneak, but it was called short.
Also, two years ago when the Chiefs got the best of the Eagles in the big game, a questionable holding call was issued on Eagles cornerback James Bradberry decided the game and led to the Super Bowl-winning field goal.
Throughout media access ahead of Super Bowl 2025, Roger Goodell shut down the narrative, calling it a “ridiculous theory.”
“This sort of reminds me a little bit of the script, right? That I write the script and have the script for the entire season,” he said.
Former NFL referee and Fox’s rules analyst for Sunday, Mike Pereira, said the idea was a “myth”, comparing it to the theory that referees “makeup calls.”
However, he acknowledged that the officials “know they’re under pressure” going into the game.
