These are Strange Days Indeed When the Officials Can't Even Help KC Beat Jacksonville

It goes without saying that every NFL season is unique. But at least your can see certain forces and trends that continue from year to year. Franchises tend to establish an identity all their own that can be sustained for decades. Baltimore always plays a tough, smothering defense. Dallas is a glamour team everyone wants to watch. Jacksonville is a bottom dweller. The Jets are always looking for a quarterback and about to fire their coach, and so on.

But 2025 is a season unto itself. The only one of those above statements that is even remotely true is, of course, the Jets. The one true constant in a world of upheaval. Other than them? Bill, strange things are afoot at the Circle K. 

We're five weeks into the season and the 1972 Dolphins are already popping corks, for there are no undefeated teams left. Eight teams, so one out of every four, are 1-4 or worse (and you know who the one "worse" is.) The best team in the AFC so far has arguably been the Colts. And no lead is safe:

But of all the strange happenings so far, none is even remotely as shocking as the events of Week 5's Monday Nighter. Because the one thing we've always been able to count on for the past eight seasons or so, the absolute ONE THING we have been able to count on to a moral certainty, was the officials would find a way to drag the Kansas City Chiefs to victory if at all possible. 

We're not all wrong about this. The whole country can't be wrong. Our eyes haven't been lying to us. The memes and the AI images don't create themselves: 

Viewer discretion is advised:

KC has enjoyed Favored Nation Status since at least 2017 or so. And the number of games they've won due to phantom pass interference calls, highly suspicious spots of the ball that defy geometry, turnovers getting called back under mysterious circumstances, and suspect roughing the passer penalties because someone rolled their eyes at Patrick Mahomes is incalculable. But it's most definitely a non-zero number. 

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What makes 2025 such a unicorn of a season is that the Chiefs got all the usual breaks in Jacksonville last night and still couldn't win. They blew a 14-point lead anyway. They fell to 2-3 just the same. They're now third place in their own division anyhow. 

All this despite the best efforts of the officiating crew, who did what they've been doing for the better part of a decade. Consider this little nugget:

The very rulebook definition of an illegal pick, which produced one of the easiest flags of the young season. But then immediately led to this familiar scene:

So it surprised no one who's been paying attention that the call was reversed and the touchdown allowed. Because more flags get picked up in a Kansas City game than in any Civil War infantry charge. And that wasn't even the worst non-call of the night. Not by a damned sight:

You know it's blatant when even ESPN's Minister of Truth can't find a way to spin it. And there's not another team in the league that would find itself on the good side of the handjob like this, leading directly to two touchdowns. That privilege is Andy Reid's team's, and theirs alone. 

And still it wasn't enough to drag them across the finish line. Try as they might, even an NFL officiating crew can't always erase a 99-yard pick-6:

Sometimes even they can't be so obvious as to reverse an error this egregious. No matter how much the league wants Taylor Swift to be happy, there are some mistakes you just have to pay for. And before you know it, the KC dynasty that never quite came into existence finds itself holding the current 10th pick in the 2026 Draft and a home underdog against Detroit Sunday night.

Like I said, strange days indeed. Nobody told KC there'd be days like these.