KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI – JANUARY 21: Patrick Mahomes #15 of the Kansas City Chiefs talks with umpire Paul King #121 on challenge of a first down marker against the Jacksonville Jaguars during the third quarter in the AFC Divisional Playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium on January 21, 2023 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by David Eulitt/Getty Images)

The 2023 AFC Championship Game is still six days away, and yet football fans are already screaming that it’s been “rigged” in favor of the Kansas City Chiefs.

On Monday, the NFL Football Operations announced that Shawn Smith has been assigned to the Chiefs-Ravens AFC Championship Game, with Clete Blakeman getting the Detroit Lions-San Francisco 49ers NFC title clash.

The NFL uses a points system to evaluate all officiating crews, and the ones with the best scores will be assigned playoff games.

Smith and Blakeman certainly did not get here by accident, yet many fans are already calling the AFC title game “rigged.” The reason? These fans believe that Smith has some favoritism towards the defending Super Bowl champions.

As noted by Clay Wendler, the Chiefs are 5-2 in games that Smith has officiated. But those two losses were rather recently, coming against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 3 of the 2022 season and against the Philadelphia Eagles back in Week 11.

Chiefs superstar defensive tackle Chris Jones was penalized for taunting on Matt Ryan after a crucial third down sack with less than five minutes to go. That kept the Colts’ drive alive, and it culminated with Ryan throwing a game-winning score to Jelani Woods with 24 seconds left.

So the Chiefs may have a winning record with Smith as the head referee, but let’s not forget that this same crew didn’t hesitate to throw a questionable flag against Jones that wound up changing the direction of that game against the Colts.

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