NFL commissioner Roger Goodell: Kansas City doesn't get any preferential treatment

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell speaks during a news conference, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in New Orleans, ahead of the NFL Super Bowl 59 football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. Credit: AP/Matt York
NEW ORLEANS — Roger Goodell said it is a “ridiculous theory” that NFL officials favor Kansas City and quarterback Patrick Mahomes, fighting back against perceptions that calls and judgments routinely go KC’s way and have helped the team reach Super Bowl LIX.
“It sort of reminds me a little bit of ‘the script’ right? That I write a script and we have a script for the entire season?” the NFL commissioner said on Monday at his annual news conference. “Listen, I think a lot of those theories are things that happen on social media and they get a new life. It’s out there. I understand that. I think it reflects a lot of the fans’ passion. And it also is a reminder for us of how important officiating is.”
Kansas City will face Philadelphia on Sunday for the Lombardi Trophy. Two years ago, those teams met in Super Bowl LVII, a 38-35 victory for KC that was decided in large part by a defensive holding penalty against Eagles cornerback James Bradberry in the final minutes.
Kansas City won 15 regular-season games this season, several of them close with controversial decisions. In last week’s AFC Championship Game, the Bills were ruled short of two first downs on plays in which they appeared to gain enough to extend drives.
Goodell said the league is working on technology that would take calls such as those out of the hands of the human beings on the field. The NFL experimented with it during the preseason and Goodell said there is more work to be done in future preseasons or with the help of other leagues. He also said he expects more calls to become reviewable, including face masks and late hits on quarterbacks.
Overall, though, he said officiating is “outstanding.”
“It’s a ridiculous theory for anyone who might take it seriously,” he said of the perceived favoritism toward Kansas City, “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 at all times?”
Goodell’s 45-minute news conference covered a number of other topics, including the potential expansion of the regular season from 17 to 18 games, broadening the annual international slate from eight to 16 games, establishing an international franchise and holding a future Super Bowl overseas.
While Goodell backed those efforts to have more football in more places, he offered no hard dates or even estimates for when any of that might happen.
“There is a lot of work to be done,” he said.
Lloyd Howell Jr., executive director of the NFL Players Association, has said in the past that the union would be open to potentially adding an 18th game. The union has the right to approve or deny any increase in the regular season through the current collective bargaining agreement.
“These are details that really need to be fleshed out,” Howell said last year. “But again, there are other economic, health and safety matters that also need to be clear to our members before there’s ever an agreement about an 18th game.”
“We know that fans love football, they want more football,” Goodell said Monday. “But we have to be sensitive and smart about the balance in how we deal with that.”
Goodell also said the NFL is looking into backing professional flag football leagues for men and women in conjunction with that growing version of the sport becoming an Olympic sport in 2028; discussed the dual role of Tom Brady as a minority owner of the Raiders and the lead analyst for Fox, which could lead to tampering or other unfair advantages (“He calls frequently about it and says ‘Am I doing OK?’ ” Goodell said of Brady), and voiced the league’s commitment to continuing diversity hiring initiatives even as the federal government and some corporate entities work to dismantle them.
“We got into diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the NFL,” Goodell said, “and we will continue in those efforts because we have not only convinced ourselves but proven to ourselves that it does make the NFL better.''
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