Ex-Head of NFL Officiating Denies Conspiracy to Get Chiefs into Super Bowl

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Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images

Dean Blandino, the former head of the National Football League’s officiating, denies that refs conspired to get the Kansas City Chiefs to the Super Bowl this year.

Blandino, who now works for Fox Sports as an analyst for NFL and college football rules, dismissed claims that the refs are tailoring their calls — or even outright cheating — to help the Chiefs earn a rare three-peat invite to the Super Bowl. TMZ reported.

“If there’s a room somewhere in the NFL offices where they were writing the script, they never invited me — and I was the head of officiating,” Blandino, who led the NFL’s refs from 2013 to 2017.

Blandino added that even if there were such a scheme, the league would not be able to keep it a secret.

“Someone somewhere would slip up, and it would get out,” he told TMZ.

He added that it is just a coincidence that the Chiefs seem to be getting all the good calls.

“Do teams get breaks at times?” he asked rhetorically. “They do. And not every call is right. And sometimes that happens.”

Blandino insisted that it all evens out over time.

Meanwhile, social media has erupted with claims that the refs conspired to advance the Chiefs to the Super Bowl with an avalanche of accusations that the game is “rigged.”

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