NEW ORLEANS — Considering the parade of celebrities, coaches and NFL greats — past and present — here for the build up to Sunday’s Super Bowl, you wouldn’t normally expect much media interest in the “rules analyst” for the network broadcasting the game.
Yet even with Rob Gronkowski, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long and others present at a Fox Sports media session Thursday, it was Mike Pereira with a crowd of cameras and microphones awaiting his arrival.
“Why is everybody here? We don’t have anything to talk about,” Pereira joked to the crowd. “We know there is something wrong.”
The something “wrong” is the fact that so much of the public narrative heading into the Philadelphia-Kansas City clash is a belief by some that the Chiefs have benefitted from favorable officiating.
Some believe it is a full-blown NFL conspiracy to boost TV ratings with the presence of Patrick Mahomes and Taylor Swift. Others think it’s the subtle bias that allows star players to get favorable whistles — a particularly accepted fact in the NBA.
Whatever it is, words like “rigged” and “bias” have almost drowned out all other storylines, including the Chiefs going for an unprecedented three-peat. True or false, fair or not, it’s left the NFL scrambling, with everyone from commissioner Roger Goodell to the executive director of the NFL Referees’ Association pushing directly back on the concept.
Perceptions become reality, though, especially these days. The speed and reach of social media in particular can make storylines like this impossible to contain. And so here was Pereira, a former college and NFL ref, who spent a dozen seasons as the league’s director of officiating, getting a turn in the spotlight.
And answering a new twist to the story … could all the accusations about the refs favoring the Chiefs impact how the game is called, including to the detriment of the Chiefs so the officials can prove a point?
It’s like a reverse jinx. Essentially, could the belief of past bias for the Chiefs (even if not true) cause an actual bias against the Chiefs?
“I think it puts more pressure on the officials on Sunday,” Periera said. “They are not going to officiate the game any differently but they know they are going into the game as part of the story.”
Periera, like everyone else associated with the NFL in any manner, rejects the concept — mainly, he says, because officials are motivated by receiving high-grades in their postgame report.
“I can’t think of a profession that is evaluated and critiqued more,” said Dean Blandino, who succeeded Pereira overseeing NFL refs before joining him at Fox Sports.
The better the grades, the further they advance in the playoffs. The Super Bowl is their Super Bowl too, an honor they dedicate much of their life toward achieving.
“I understand [the pro-KC chatter] because the numbers kind of show it and some of the iffy calls have gone the Chiefs’ way,” Periera said. “But in reality, the refs are only trying to do the one thing: make the right call because they want to advance to the Super Bowl …
“From our standpoint, it just doesn’t happen,” he continued. “It’s like the make-up call. You make a bad call against this team, you know you are going to get downgraded. ‘Oh, so let’s make a bad call against this team to make it even?’ Now you get downgraded twice and you aren’t in the playoffs.”
Makes sense, but it is also unlikely to quell the masses.
No matter where anyone stands on the issue — from tin-foil hat conspiracist to full-on rejection — what is undeniable is that the officiating crew this week is well aware of what is being said. They don’t live in a vacuum.
“I know when I was on the field, nobody ever told me to officiate a game one way or the other,” Pereira said. “And when I ran the department for 12 years I never thought of telling anyone anything. I didn’t even tell them, ‘Take a look at No. 71, he holds.’ Because you don’t want to put a mindset in an official’s head because if you do, he’ll overreact.”
Exactly. In this case a fake story could have a real impact. Or at least be perceived that way when the 50-50 call goes in one direction or the other. It’s all head-spinning at this point.
“The really good officials can block out that noise,” Blandino said. “If you let that impact you, you are going to overcorrect and let that seep into your thinking and you are not going to officiate the game to the best of your ability.”
“I don’t think the officials care about what’s said,” Kansas City coach Andy Reid said Thursday. “They don’t favor one side or the other. … It’s a good story, but that’s not the reality of how it works. You’d be insulting them to think that’s what they do. They go out and call it like they see it.”
All of this has left the officials in a nearly no-win situation. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t. It’s a mess … unless your job is being a rules analyst for the Super Bowl broadcast and you are suddenly in high demand.
“This is good for my job,” Pereira said with a laugh. “When I was working for the NFL, we’d gather in a circle and say, ‘One-two-three, no controversy.’ Then I go to Fox and I was getting airtime, we’d say, ‘One-two-three, a little controversy.’”
Pretty good chance there is going to be a little controversy on Sunday, one way or the other.
