EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — During the past eight or nine years, many football fans have wondered: Is the NFL favoring the Kansas City Chiefs? Why do Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs always seem to get bailed out with a penalty flag against the other team?

Recent research out of the University of Texas at El Paso suggests it may be more than a myth.

Published in the journal Financial Review, the study provides “one of the clearest empirical looks at how financial pressures can influence real-time rule enforcement,” the UTEP research team said.

From 2015 to 2023 — an era in which the Chiefs played in three Super Bowls, winning twice — the UTEP team said Kansas City benefited from “slanted officiating.” During the playoffs as a whole — when viewership may matter most to the NFL, financially speaking — researchers said the Chiefs’ offense was more likely to get first downs, as well as significant yardage, thanks to penalties against the opposing defense.

The UTEP study said the New England Patriots did not receive the same benefits while helmed by Tom Brady during their historic run of success, and neither did other recent Super Bowl contenders.

The researchers also found an uptick in calls that benefit the Chiefs’ offense around 2018, when Mahomes became the starting quarterback, a report from Chron explained. There was no noticeable difference in calls made during the regular season, however.

“Our findings suggest that when the league’s financial health is at stake, rule enforcement may subtly shift to protect market appeal,” said Spencer Barnes, Ph.D., an assistant professor of finance in UTEP’s Woody L. Hunt College of Business and the lead author of the study. “The fact that postseason penalties consistently favored one franchise, while similar dynasties showed no such pattern, points to the powerful role of financial incentives in shaping supposedly neutral decisions.”

Barnes theorized this may be due to financial pressures the NFL has faced amid a decline in TV viewership and a ratings drop during the 2015, 2016, and 2017 seasons. Then, the NFL faced criticism over racial issues, like San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem.

While speaking with Chron, Barnes warned that the study did not find any proof that the Chiefs are intentionally being favored, though. Instead, Barnes suggested that “if there’s a financial incentive tied to one team, then that might sort of bias the refs’ decision-making.”

Meanwhile, other recent research shows the Chiefs haven’t benefited much at all from penalty calls.

Ahead of the Super Bowl in February — the Philadelphia Eagles outdueled the Chiefs, 40-22, squashing their attempt at a three-peat — Mike Pereira, the officiating expert in Fox’s broadcast booth, called claims that the Chiefs are favored by officials a “myth.”

“I’m sad that it’s the story,” said Pereira, who has also worked as an on-field official and the head of the NFL officiating department, during media availability in New Orleans. “I feel badly for the officials. I feel badly for the game, because from our standpoint, (favoritism) just doesn’t happen.”

According to the Associated Press, the Chiefs — as of early February, pre-Super Bowl — had been penalized for 120 more yards than their opponents in the regular season and playoffs since the start of the 2022 playoffs. Kansas City has also benefited from 10 fewer first downs by penalty on third or fourth down in that span and has had only a small edge in penalty-yard differential in the fourth quarter or overtime of close games.

Pereira said earlier this year that criticism over the perceived favoritism isn’t much different than what he heard as the head of officiating from 2001-09 but intensity is different thanks to the modern media environment.

“I didn’t have social media to deal with,” he said. “Everything grows so fast in social media now. You have zero control over it and little things can grow so quickly that the whole world knows them.”

Fox officiating analyst Dean Blandino, who was the NFL’s vice president of officiating from 2013-17, and Pereira both said officiating mobile quarterbacks like Mahomes can be more difficult because of the fine line between protecting quarterbacks from unnecessary big hits to making sure the defense can make stops.

“When you think about the numbers, the last three or four years, Mahomes is probably middle of the road in terms of the number of calls he’s got,” Blandino said ahead of Super Bowl LIX. “But he does do a good job of pushing that envelope, especially on the sideline. Officials have to be aware of it.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — During the past eight or nine years, many football fans have wondered: Is the NFL favoring the Kansas City Chiefs? Why do Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs always seem to get bailed out with a penalty flag against the other team?

Recent research out of the University of Texas at El Paso suggests it may be more than a myth.

Published in the journal Financial Review, the study provides “one of the clearest empirical looks at how financial pressures can influence real-time rule enforcement,” the UTEP research team said.

From 2015 to 2023 — an era in which the Chiefs played in three Super Bowls, winning twice — the UTEP team said Kansas City benefited from “slanted officiating.” During the playoffs as a whole — when viewership may matter most to the NFL, financially speaking — researchers said the Chiefs’ offense was more likely to get first downs, as well as significant yardage, thanks to penalties against the opposing defense.

The UTEP study said the New England Patriots did not receive the same benefits while helmed by Tom Brady during their historic run of success, and neither did other recent Super Bowl contenders.

The researchers also found an uptick in calls that benefit the Chiefs’ offense around 2018, when Mahomes became the starting quarterback, a report from Chron explained. There was no noticeable difference in calls made during the regular season, however.

“Our findings suggest that when the league’s financial health is at stake, rule enforcement may subtly shift to protect market appeal,” said Spencer Barnes, Ph.D., an assistant professor of finance in UTEP’s Woody L. Hunt College of Business and the lead author of the study. “The fact that postseason penalties consistently favored one franchise, while similar dynasties showed no such pattern, points to the powerful role of financial incentives in shaping supposedly neutral decisions.”

Barnes theorized this may be due to financial pressures the NFL has faced amid a decline in TV viewership and a ratings drop during the 2015, 2016, and 2017 seasons. Then, the NFL faced criticism over racial issues, like San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem.

While speaking with Chron, Barnes warned that the study did not find any proof that the Chiefs are intentionally being favored, though. Instead, Barnes suggested that “if there’s a financial incentive tied to one team, then that might sort of bias the refs’ decision-making.”

Meanwhile, other recent research shows the Chiefs haven’t benefited much at all from penalty calls.

Ahead of the Super Bowl in February — the Philadelphia Eagles outdueled the Chiefs, 40-22, squashing their attempt at a three-peat — Mike Pereira, the officiating expert in Fox’s broadcast booth, called claims that the Chiefs are favored by officials a “myth.”

“I’m sad that it’s the story,” said Pereira, who has also worked as an on-field official and the head of the NFL officiating department, during media availability in New Orleans. “I feel badly for the officials. I feel badly for the game, because from our standpoint, (favoritism) just doesn’t happen.”

According to the Associated Press, the Chiefs — as of early February, pre-Super Bowl — had been penalized for 120 more yards than their opponents in the regular season and playoffs since the start of the 2022 playoffs. Kansas City has also benefited from 10 fewer first downs by penalty on third or fourth down in that span and has had only a small edge in penalty-yard differential in the fourth quarter or overtime of close games.

Pereira said earlier this year that criticism over the perceived favoritism isn’t much different than what he heard as the head of officiating from 2001-09 but intensity is different thanks to the modern media environment.

“I didn’t have social media to deal with,” he said. “Everything grows so fast in social media now. You have zero control over it and little things can grow so quickly that the whole world knows them.”

Fox officiating analyst Dean Blandino, who was the NFL’s vice president of officiating from 2013-17, and Pereira both said officiating mobile quarterbacks like Mahomes can be more difficult because of the fine line between protecting quarterbacks from unnecessary big hits to making sure the defense can make stops.

“When you think about the numbers, the last three or four years, Mahomes is probably middle of the road in terms of the number of calls he’s got,” Blandino said ahead of Super Bowl LIX. “But he does do a good job of pushing that envelope, especially on the sideline. Officials have to be aware of it.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.