OMG, LOOK! The NFL is at it again! All the winning the Kansas City Chiefs have done is totally invalid. They were once again carried to their third Super Bowl victory in five years only by the officials. Couldn’t have anything to do with the greatness of Patrick Mahomes, nor the power of Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift’s love.
Nope. Write all that off. We have the smoking gun, ladies and gentlemen. Or at least that’s what knee-jerk reactors on social media would have you believe. Late in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LVIII, Mahomes took off on one of his trademark scrambles to convert a 2nd and short for a first down. Unfortunately, as the Chiefs were in scramble mode on their final possession, the CBS graphic couldn’t quite keep up, and thought Kansas City had gained a first down on the 49ers the play before.
Just look at this. People will preemptively pop off about anything if it fits their delusional narrative.
Never let facts get in the way of your outrage, y’all. That sounds like too much effort. Not like there are a million more intelligent digital strangers — or even a handy-dandy search engine — that could tell you pretty much anything you could ever want to know!
Estimated time to debunk: Eight seconds.
If you ran with the idea that the NFL/CBS was casting some Satanic spell on you to make you see things that weren’t there, you could always check this thing called an online Super Bowl box score. The one at ESPN dot com has a play-by-play section, where you can see what happened each individual play. That reads as follows:
“1st & 10 at KC 25
(1:53 – 4th) (Shotgun) P.Mahomes pass short right to T.Kelce to KC 34 for 9 yards (F.Warner).
2nd & 1 at KC 34 (1:37 – 4th) (No Huddle, Shotgun)
P.Mahomes scrambles right end ran ob at KC 37 for 3 yards (F.Warner).”
Just search “rigged” on Twitter, and you’ll find all sorts of quacks jumping on this latest “RIGGED” talking point. You see how much engagement this sort of crap drives. What a waste of brain matter for these poor people. A poll of over 3,000 and counting puts the “Yes, the Super Bowl was rigged” theory at 76% as of this writing.
On the first possession of overtime, referees called a 3rd and long defensive holding penalty on Chiefs defensive back Trent McDuffie. That kept San Francisco’s super-long drive going, resulting in a field goal. If the NFL were rigging everything, why wouldn’t they just make it easy, pocket the yellow laundry, and force a 49ers punt from deep in their own end so that all Mahomes would need is a field goal to win? Makes you think.
It’s a harsh reality for any other fan base, but it’s one we must all deal with. The Chiefs are Super Bowl champions. Again. No matter what harebrained “RIGGED” theory anyone comes up with, the game happened. They’re not replaying it. It’s over. Let it go…
