The Kansas City Chiefs have reached their third straight Super Bowl, and the conspiracies are flowing.
Some NFL fans are sick of seeing Kansas City in the biggest game of the year, and push the agenda that the league is being ‘rigged’ or ‘scripted’ in their favor.
They point to controversial refereeing calls, the ‘protection’ of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and even the Super Bowl logo itself, to back up their argument.
Of course, success breeds contempt, and it’s not surprising that other fan bases are looking to taint the Chiefs’ bid for a historic three-peat.
If you can’t beat them, complain about them.
But one man who doesn’t buy into the suggestion that the NFL is rigged in favor of the Chiefs is Shannon Sharpe.
The three-time Super Bowl winner, speaking after the Chiefs won the AFC Championship game against the Buffalo Bills, rubbished any conspiracy theories and argued that if the league was to be scripted in anyone’s favor, it should be for the Dallas Cowboys.
In fact, Sharpe suggested that Dallas would have bettered Kansas City’s achievements – and even the efforts of the New England Patriots dynasty – if it wasn’t for owner Jerry Jones.
“People keep talking about the NFL being rigged, why haven’t they rigged it for the Cowboys?” he asked co-host Chad ‘Ochocinco’ Johnson during their Nightcap podcast on Monday.
“The most popular team, most valuable franchise, why haven’t they rigged it for them?
“The Cowboys had a chance to be the Chiefs and Jerry (Jones) f***ing ruined it. He had that in the ’90s, he had Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin.
“He had a dominant offensive line, a dominant defense and he ruined it.
“He had the Chiefs and the Patriots before the Chiefs and the Patriots.
“The NFL, they’ve got the Cowboys, the most marketable franchise, the most valuable franchise in pro sports, but they’ve yet to rig it for them. Why?”
Sharpe and Johnson then agreed that scripting the NFL would be impossible, due to all the ‘moving parts’ that would be involved.
“I always thought to myself, ‘you’ve got 53 players on a squad, they go to meetings, practices, more meetings,’” Johnson continued.
“They go through plays at the start of the game. Scripted how? How would you get everybody on the same page?”
Sharpe then jumped back in, suggesting the only people pushing conspiracies are fans of teams that lose games and people who haven’t played football.
“I get it, you want your team to win, but come on. Ya’ll just say anything,” he concluded.
While the talk of an NFL conspiracy clearly irritates both Sharpe and Johnson, it’s not likely to go away in the build up to Super Bowl LIX.
And if the Chiefs win, it might get even worse.
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