Not Great: Roger Goodell begins Super Bowl Week by trying to convince everyone that the NFL isn’t rigged in the Kansas City Chiefs favor

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell kicked off an exciting Super Bowl Week by begging football fans to believe him when he says that the NFL is not rigged.

Yikes. Obviously, nothing says “we definitely don’t rig games” like the commissioner of the league going out of his way to say the NFL isn’t rigged.

Roger Goodell officially kicked off Super Bowl week by standing in front of the media and doing exactly what you should never do when people think you’re guilty—bring up the conspiracy theories unprompted.

• “No, we don’t favor the Chiefs.”
• “No, there isn’t a script.”
• “No, the refs aren’t biased.”

If Roger Goodell has to say all of this out loud, guess what? The NFL already lost.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the idea that officials favor the #Chiefs is a “ridiculous theory for anyone who might take it serious.”

Reminds him of The Script idea and is a reminder how important officiating is.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 3, 2025

Roger Goodell: “Trust Me Bro. It’s Not Rigged. There’s No Script” (basically)

"That's a ridiculous theory — for anyone who might take it seriously. But at the end of the day, it's something we always have to continue to work on: How do we make our officiating better?"

– Roger Goodell when asked about public perception that referees are favoring the Chiefs pic.twitter.com/uA2YX7FE7s

— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) February 3, 2025

Why Is This Even a Conversation?

This is what happens when your refs screw up so many calls that people start treating NFL officiating like pro wrestling. In this specific situation, the anger stems from the Chiefs always seeming to benefit from this nonsense.

Is that true? Meh. I understand why people believe that. Officiating is awful. The AFC Championship Game was riddled with missed calls and mistakes too. Overall however, it’s really not as bad as fans think. The majority of the time, it’s the opposing team beating themselves and allowing the Kansas City Chiefs to gut out one-score wins, week after week.

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At a certain point, you can’t blame people for asking questions. The NFL built its empire on gambling money, and now people don’t trust what they’re betting on.

Is Roger Goodell the best way to kill the conspiracy theories? Highly unlikely. In fact, I would argue that Goodell taking a podium and entertaining social media conspiracy theories about the league being rigged and that there’s a script is borderline insane.

If we’re going to entertain the topic, then the NFL can easily clean this up and it’s fair to question why they haven’t done so already.

Fix the Officiating, Stop Making Excuses

Make refs answer postgame questions like players and coaches do. Every week, we watch games get derailed by horrendous officiating, and instead of accountability, we get silence and a random fine days, sometimes weeks later.

Goodell standing there saying “how do we make officiating better?” like he’s a confused bystander instead of the commissioner of the entire league is laughable. You’re the guy in charge, brother. What the hell are you doing?

How about…

✅ Full-time officials instead of part-timers working side gigs.
✅ Postgame press conferences for refs.
✅ Clear explanations on controversial calls instead of hiding behind the “NFL Officiating” Twitter account.

The Chiefs Conspiracy Is Only Going to Get Louder

I don’t care if you’re a Chiefs fan or a Chiefs hater, you have to admit this is a terrible look for the NFL. If the Chiefs get a questionable call on Sunday, the internet is going to explode.

Eagles fans will be relentless and stop at nothing outside of Goodell’s head staked out front of the NovaCare Complex. It’s an ugly road to travel on, let alone entertain behind a podium ahead of the fucking Super Bowl, Roger. Wake up, please.

It’s hard to feel bad for the NFL though. This is their own doing. Years of inconsistent officiating, weird rule interpretations, and constant blown calls have made the league impossible to trust. And yet, instead of fixing the problem, we get Goodell standing at a podium telling us to just trust him.

Yeah, that’ll work.

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