‘Biggest NFL Scandal in 25 Years’ — Did Refs Just Admit To ‘Rigging’ Games for Chiefs? Lions Reveal ‘Smoking Gun’

The Kansas City Chiefs bounced back on Monday Night Football against the Detroit Lions in Week 6 after a brutal primetime loss the week before.

It didn’t come without controversy, though, as a fourth-down touchdown was taken off the board for the Lions after a long replay review.

A penalty was called and it stirred up controversy on how the referees are potentially favoring the Chiefs.

Are the Refs Rigging Games for the Kansas City Chiefs?

On the fourth-down play, Lions quarterback Jared Goff sprinted out from under center and Lions RB David Montgomery took the snap. He fired the ball to Goff, who caught it ran in for the touchdown. After review, the refs called an illegal shift call on Goff retrospectively and took the points off the board.

Goff was confused about the interpretation of the rule.

“My hands were not under center and I was set to begin the play. As far as I was concerned, I thought those were the only things I needed to do. They were saying that — I’ve never heard this — but that because of how close I was to the center that then declares me as a quarterback and then I can’t go in motion,” said Goff. “I was only under the impression that it was my hands under center, so that’s a new version of that rule that I have never heard of and I think a lot of our coaches have never heard of.”

Lions head coach Dan Campbell revealed that he spoke to the NFL about the controversial call and told reporters that he couldn’t talk about what happened. Meanwhile, sports radio host Craig Carton called out the NFL for helping the Chiefs.

He went to extreme lengths, calling it one of the biggest scandals the NFL has seen in recent history.

“Bigger than Spygate and Deflategate – Dan Campbell confirms the Goff TD was overturned by Replay Assist from NY,” said Carton. “They created a penalty and took 74 seconds to do it to help KC out – this is the biggest NFL scandal in 25 years and proves what I and many others have been saying about KC – they don’t win on merit – they could because they are really good but The NFL doesn’t ask them too.”

Bigger than Spygate and Deflategate – Dan Campbell confirms the Goff TD was overturned by Replay Assist from NY – They created a penalty and took 74 seconds to do it to help KC out – this is the biggest NFL scandal in 25 years and proves what I and many others have been saying…

— Craig Carton (@craigcartonlive) October 15, 2025

Fans have long accused the refs of favoring the Chiefs. Now, there is potential evidence of this, which Carton called “the smoking gun” on his radio show. While the Chiefs aren’t doing anything illegal, if they are benefiting from the NFL’s unusual intervention, it does create a potential integrity problem.

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“We were told, ‘No, the NFL would never get involved. You can’t use Replay Assist to create penalties that weren’t called or to overturn penalties that were called,'” said Carton. “Except the officials told Dan Campbell that the only reason they overturned it, and the only reason there was 72 seconds of dead time in between touchdown and extra point, or touchdown and nullified touchdown, was because the NFL in New York picked up the phone, buzzed into the officiating crew and told them, ‘Overturn the touchdown!’

“I’m sick of talking about it, but here I am again because now you’ve got a smoking gun. Now you’ve got a head coach who, when asked to elaborate on that, said, ‘I’m not allowed to.’ You are now learning that everything that I have been saying about the NFL rigging games on behalf of Kansas City through the officials is happening in real-time. The officials confirmed it to Dan Campbell!”

This is an interesting point, and this could boil over into a much bigger issue if it continues. Following this revelation, fans will be extra vigilant about the calls the Chiefs are getting and whether they are getting special treatment from the refs.

The Chiefs are back to .500 and are getting reinforcements in Week 7 in the form of Rashee Rice, who will make his season debut after an NFL suspension, but they now have yet another cloud of officiating-related controversy hovering over them.