Former Chiefs Player Rips ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter
Yesterday at 01:39 PM
As the Kansas City Chiefs prepare for their seventh straight AFC Championship Game, Adam Schefter placed a spotlight on NFL officiating.
On Saturday night, Schefter reported that the NFL will consider expanding replay assist to include quarterback slides. The ESPN insider framed the article as a response to last weekend's unpopular penalties against the Houston Texans, even though the league said the refs made the right calls.
On Sunday, Schefter followed up by sharing a stat from ESPN researcher Paul Hembekides. In Kansas City's last eight playoff wins, opponents have been called for 10 roughing the passer or necessary roughness penalties. However, the Chiefs have gotten flagged for those infractures just once.
That post emboldened conspiracy theorists convinced the NFL favors Kansas City. Former Chiefs offensive lineman Mitchell Schwartz blasted Schefter for giving that notion a prominent platform.
Schwartz also shared a video from Chase Snyder compiling all seven rougher the passer flags for late hits on Patrick Mahomes during his postseason career. Most of them are blatant penalties.
"This is incredibly embarrassing for someone who commands zero respect," Schwartz wrote. "Almost every one of these the announcers say are clear penalties. The one that they don't the NFL reviewed it and said it was a penalty."
The former All-Pro offered a hypothesis for why the Chiefs aren't getting called for those violations as often.
"It's insane that someone in the league is pushing this, and/or allowing the most visible person to spew this kind of BS," Schwartz continued. "Maybe the Chiefs are better coached and don't hit QBs late or in the head/neck. Back in my day teams who got less penalties called were considered better coached."
Schwartz wasn't the only one angry with Schefter. His brother, Geoff Schwartz, responded to the insider's tweet by posting a screenshot of Mahomes getting smacked in the face on one of the roughing penalties from last year's AFC Championship Game.
Fox Sports pundit Nick Wright called Schefter's post on the morning of conference championship games "a disservice to fans."
"I (and basically everyone) like Schefter," Wright said. "But writing this piece, framing it around Mahomes exclusively, and not including the fact that *the league says both calls were correct & replay wouldn't have changed either* is simply ludicrous & poor journalism."
Mitchell Schwartz responded to one of Wright's tweets by imploring Schefter to stop igniting the harmful narrative around the Chiefs and referees.
"The league's voice with the largest reach is insinuating the league both influences games via refereeing AND favors one team specifically," Schwartz said. "It's not a cute little joke. That would be the biggest sports scandal ever."
Related: Stat About Chiefs, NFL Refs Goes Viral Before AFC Championship
