The NFL needs to use electronic spot or fans will think the game is rigged

On By Littum

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Join the 21st century, NFL.

The NFL has desperately needed electronic spotting for years now. Now, after the AFC championship ignited an irregular spot, the NFL must make implementing it the top priority this offseason. Don’t send it to a committee where it will be buried or slowly walked away. Don’t say you’re “trying it.”

Get. The. Done.

Unless, of course, the NFL is cool with fans who believe in the league and the refs put their thumbs on the scale for Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City Chiefs And increasingly questioning whether this $20 billion industry is more real than WWE. Unless it wants to continue living in the dark ages and doing things the way they were done in the days of leather helmets.

Clinging to a 1-point lead early in the fourth quarter, the Buffalo Bills went for it on fourth-and-1 with a Josh Allen sneak. It looked like Allen got the first down — by several inches, no less — before they were pushed back.

One of the linesmen seemed to agree and trotted onto the field just over the first-down line. But another didn’t, got on the field under it, and the initial call was that Allen didn’t get the first down. Which, ok, fine. It is not always easy to tell in the moment when there is the big pile of bodies.

But then the call was upheld on review, and CBS Rules Analyst Gene Steratore spoke for anyone who isn’t a Chiefs fan.

“I felt like he got it with about a third of the football,” said Steratore, who was an NFL official for 15 years.

And this is from a guy who once needed one index card Making a first-down call!

“I thought he had it,” Bills Head coach Sean McDermott said after the game. “Just short of the line was actually the first down, how it looked to me when it was sitting next to me with the marker. Right inside the white stripe was the first down. It looked like he got to it . That was all I can say.”

Five plays later, Mahomes rushed for a score that gave the Chiefs a 29-22 lead. The Bills would tie the game again, but Kansas City kicked a field goal and Buffalo couldn’t answer. The Chiefs won, 32-29, to reach Super Bowl 59 against Philadelphia.

Now, there’s no telling if the Bills would have won the game if Allen had gotten the first down early in the fourth quarter. There were still almost 13 minutes left in the game and the Chiefs are nearly impossible to beat at home. They are also nearly impossible to beat in big games and reach the Super Bowl for a third consecutive season.

The Bills also had plenty of mistakes of their own. They failed twice on two-point conversions. Needing a field goal to send the game to overtime, Allen was 1 of 4 on Buffalo’s final possession. But it’s also really hard to see the momentum the Bills had at that moment and not think the refs took it away from them.

“Of course it (matters). Darn Right do it,” McDermott said. It is a possession. We are up at that time. A chance to go up maybe more scores at that point. It’s a big call. It’s definitely a big call. “

And really, whether this call made the difference in the outcome or not is beside the point.

The NFL is hypersensitive to anything that calls into question the integrity of the game. This is why several players have received hefty game suspensions. Still, there is a growing number of fans who believe the NFL is partial to Mahomes and the Chiefs and have let the referees know it. The thinking is that because Mahomes is the face of the league, and because Travis Kelce’s romance with Taylor Swift has brought a legion of new fans to the NFL, it’s best for everyone that they end up on the winning side.

Every play that grabs the gifts the Chiefs get from the refs. Calls made in their favor. Calls against their opponent. Sanctions ignored. Penalty assessed. Even earlier in Sunday’s game, Refs ruled Xavier Worthy had a 26-yard catch When replays showed possession was debatable. Two plays later, the Chiefs scored.

Electronic spotting does not end all suspicion. But when the NFL’s credibility is called into question, even a partial solution is better than the status quo. The technology exists. The NFL has the money for that. All it needs is the motif, and this game certainly provided that.

Follow USA TODAY sports columnist Nancy Armor on social media @nrarmour.