Refs will be under a Super Bowl 2025 microscope, whether NFL likes it or not

NEW ORLEANS — Mike Pereira made his way to a chair waiting for him inside a meeting room at the Convention Center here Thursday when he began to laugh at the crowd of media waiting for him. “Why is everybody here?” said Pereira, the former NFL referee who will be the rules analyst for Fox at Super Bowl 2025 on Sunday.“We don’t have anything to talk about.

We know something is wrong.” What’s wrong for the NFL is one of the biggest stories surrounding Sunday’s game is the officials and how they will call the game.There is a widespread belief that refs are showing favoritism toward the Chiefs.

There are statistics that show they have gotten fewer flags than their opponents in the playoffs in recent years.There have been questionable penalty calls and a shaky fourth-down measurement during this playoff run. All of it adds up to a story the public can’t seem to get enough of, and the NFL just wants to go away.

Are the Eagles playing the Chiefs AND the officials Sunday? “[It’s] a ridiculous theory, for anyone who might take it seriously,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said this week. Goodell can call it ridiculous, but the theory will only gain steam if the Chiefs are the beneficiary of a questionable flag Sunday, especially late in the game.The NFL has to hope referee Ron Torbert is not a bigger star than Saquon Barkley come Monday morning. “If we pick up the paper and there’s no mention of them, that’s success,” said Pereira, who oversaw the NFL’s officiating from 1998-2010.

“They know they’re under pressure.” Pereira was speaking at an event Fox held for the media that featured its analysts.The room had Hall of Famers, Super Bowl MVPs and Super Bowl-winning coaches in it.

But Pereira and fellow officiating analyst Dean Blandino had a sizeable crowd waiting to ask them whether Patrick Mahomes gets a friendly flag. Pereira dismissed the idea as a “myth.” He compared it to the idea that referees make “makeup call...