The Kansas City Chiefs marched to their seventh straight appearance in the AFC Championship Game after defeating the Houston Texans 23-14.
However, the chatter did not end on the field and has been the center of discussion in the NFL world ever since. There were several controversial calls, and Mark Schlereth refuses to let it die down and aimed criticism at the current state of NFL refereeing.
Mark Schlereth Calls Out Refereeing in Chiefs-Texans Game
While the game was still being played, NFL fans started calling out egregious calls on the field. After the game finished, Texans defensive end Will Anderson Jr. added fuel to the fire.
“We knew it was going to be us versus the refs going into this game,” Anderson said. Schlereth had been campaigning against the penalty calls made by the refs, even after official Clay Martin had clarified his stance.
One Chiefs fan targeted Schlereth as a hater due to his affiliations with their divisional rivals, the Denver Broncos. The former guard played six seasons with Denver and won the Super Bowl twice with them (his first Super Bowl victory was with Washington).
Schlereth responded to that fan on X (formerly Twitter) without addressing his claims of bias. “Officiating in the league is awful and they don’t know what is and isn’t a foul,” he tweeted.
Officiating in the league is awful and they don’t know what is and isn’t a foul. https://t.co/P8VErkVgn0
— Mark Schlereth (@markschlereth) January 20, 2025
While the Chiefs are preparing for their game against the Buffalo Bills, their last game is still being talked about. Amidst the claims of poor refereeing responsible for their victory, they have received support as well.
Patrick Mahomes Wants Chiefs WRs To Step Up
The Chiefs won their game against the Texans without three of their primary receivers making a single catch. DeAndre Hopkins, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Marquise Brown weren’t involved in the game as much as Mahomes hoped.
“Obviously you want to get those guys involved, that makes our offense even better,” Mahomes said to the press after the game. “There was times where we stalled out on drives, so that’ll be something that we work on going into another great opponent this next week.”
“But they’re part of the offense, and they know that, and they’re going to keep going out there and competing.”