There has been a never-ending narrative that the Kansas City Chiefs are given an assist from officials in the game's most meaningful moments. This frustrates KC fans to no end, who understand they have just as often come up on the short end of calls. However, this doesn't fit with the narrative that fans and pundits prefer when attempting to explain why the Chiefs have tormented the rest of the league for over half a decade. Now, Kansas City fans find themselves on the wrong end of calls in Sunday's Super Bowl rematch that ended in a 20-17 Eagles win.
Noted Chiefs fan Chris Bryant highlighted during Philly's Tush-Push play that both guards jumped ahead of the snap. In fairness, it is incredibly difficult to officiate a play where the center of the offensive line appears to nosedive into the defensive line at the same time. The fact that the Eagles are getting away with false starts on the play really isn't a surprise. It highlights frustration with a cheat code of a play that gives Philly an automatic first-down if they can get within a yard or two of the sticks.
Chiefs Have Reason for Frustration After Officials Miss Two Clear False Starts
Both times that the Eagles ran the play late in the fourth quarter, there were clear false starts. Something that the broadcast actively called out, slowing down the play and showing both guards jumping moments before the ball found Jalen Hurts. It was clearly a penalty and would've changed the complexion of the game for the Chiefs.
Perhaps now, fans and pundits can take a step back and realize that it isn't just the Chiefs who benefit from missed or bad calls. Officials are consistently missing plays, and when you're the league's prestige team, consistently playing in prime time, these mistakes are going to be magnified. That is the story here; it serves as a clear example of why a narrative without footing must end. For Kansas City, there is no denying that the missed calls changed the complexion of this game.
However, just as Chiefs fans have pointed out to other fan bases in these situations, there are a dozen other plays that Kansas City had an opportunity and failed the moment. Putting it bluntly, this team simply isn't meeting the championship standards that it has set since Mahomes and Reid have been together.
This isn't to belittle the frustration or deny the blown calls, but rather looking at the bigger picture that this team isn't where it needs to be. Still, the franchise has earned far too much trust for fans to give up after two rough weeks. This is an incredibly tough group that will put in the needed work to figure things out and turn the season around.
With that said, this will be used as evidence as to why the Tush-Push play should be banned in the 2026 offseason. The rugby-style play is incredibly hard to officiate, and missed calls on the play changed the complexion of one of the season's most-watched games. The NFL needs to be held accountable for this level of miss in such a huge game, and that answer might be banning a play that remains impossible to stop.