The 2024-2025 NFL Season: A Rigged Affair
Reported by Jayden Forsyth
Photographed by Luci Lettau
The 2024-2025 NFL season has ended unexpectedly, with the Philadelphia Eagles defeating the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in Super Bowl LIX. Although I am not a gambling man, I would have bet my house (if I had one) on Kansas City taking home the Lombardi Trophy on Sunday.
As a longtime NFL fan, I grew skeptical of the Chiefs’ success two years ago. While they were once an elite team, they have slowed down considerably, now relying heavily on luck and officiating to win games.
With a record of 16-2 in the regular season, one would have expected them to sweep Super Bowl LIX. Yet Chiefs barely scraped by this year. They narrowly defeated opponents like the Carolina Panthers and the Las Vegas Raiders and consistently benefited from favorable officiating.
In multiple games this season, the Chiefs prevailed thanks to controversial calls. Examples include a questionable pass interference penalty against the Cincinnati Bengals that allowed Kansas City to get into field goal range for a game-winning kick and a missed defensive pass interference call that could have given the Atlanta Falcons a win in Week 3.
Additionally, during a matchup against the Raiders, a play initially ruled dead was later called live, conveniently allowing the Chiefs to recover a fumbled ball while Raiders players had stopped believing the play was over. The most egregious example came in the AFC Championship when poor ball spotting cost the Bills two first downs on their final drive, likely preventing their victory and keeping the Chiefs in contention for another Super Bowl.
These are just a few instances of referees appearing to favor Kansas City throughout the season. However, in the Super Bowl, aside from a questionable call against Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown in the first quarter, the referees largely stood down, allowing Philadelphia to dominate.
So why stop helping the Chiefs now? If the NFL had been actively fixing games in Kansas City’s favor, why would it withdraw support in the biggest game of the year? A growing theory suggests an answer: sports betting.
Before kickoff, sports betting apps heavily promoted free picks on Chiefs players, and Kansas City was favored by 1.5 points. It seemed like common sense to bet on the Chiefs.
Many bettors across the country placed significant wagers on the Chiefs, assuming the league’s favoritism would continue. For a supposedly legendary team, how did the Chiefs fail to score a single point or even cross midfield on offense until late in the second half? The answer, some believe, is that they were never truly a dominant team this season, they had merely been propped up by officiating. They crumbled once that advantage was removed.
This year’s Super Bowl attracted a record-breaking 126 million viewers, helped by the hype surrounding the Chiefs. Another major factor was Taylor Swift, whose presence at games throughout the season significantly boosted viewership, particularly among female audiences. Her relationship with veteran tight end Travis Kelce led to a 400% increase in his jersey sales.
Swift and the NFL have seemingly developed a mutually beneficial relationship. When she attended a Jets vs. Chiefs game in October 2023, it conveniently shifted media attention away from her private jet’s environmental impact. After that game, online searches for “Taylor Swift jet” primarily returned images of her at MetLife Stadium rather than statistics on her carbon emissions. The Chiefs only needed to make it to the Super Bowl to maximize viewership and engagement; the NFL did not necessarily care who won.
In the end, the league’s strategy worked. Super Bowl LIX became the most-watched game in history, proving once again that, in the NFL, storylines and profits may matter more than fair competition.