Slides, referees, fouls; the Chiefs have been in a tornado of debates this year. Patrick Mahomes and his squad have been accused of getting an edge from the referees who have called numerous controversial fouls on opponents. To fuel the important and impactful talks about the issue more, a former NFL player has fired a burst toward football fans. 

Former NFL safety Louis Riddick was on the Dan Patrick Show after the Chief-Bills conference championship and discussed tons of important topics. And one of the topics the host, Dan Patrick, brought up on the floor was ‘referees’. “I wanted a controversy-free game”, the host said, and Riddick replied, “Me too.” At the start of the answer he just took a jab at fans who are just giving the excuse of Patrick Mahomes getting calls. 

Louis Riddick said, “Everything on my Twitter feeds where I’m sitting there and looking at it and just typing some stuff during the game… everything is about ‘yeah but the refs’, ‘yeah but the refs, ‘Yeah but the refs.’” The former players continued, “This has become like an easy go-to thing now for people. And I understand  that there are some things that look no different than any other sport where sometimes Superstars get preferential treatment.” And you know, this is what former Patriots Superstar Julian Edelman also talked about on the Pat McAfee Show the other day. Julian Edelman was talking about how Tom Brady also got help from refs at some point.

Another thing fans are talking about Patrick Mahomes is sliding and flopping. But the NFL has come up with a new rule for Mahomes and other QBs. Wanna know what’s the issue and what is the new rule? Let’s take a deep dive. 

The NFL slides into Patrick Mahomes’ playbook

It’s not new that players, especially quarterbacks, are being criticized for sliding down late. But Patrick Mahomes has come into the limelight after football experts and fans accused him of sliding down late to get hit by the defensive players and other teams and making them bear the foul. So, clever, huh? But the NFL, thankfully, could soon come up with a new tweak regarding the slides done by (especially mobile) quarterbacks.

The whole outburst on Mahomes started after Henry To’oTo’o (Texans defender) tackled him while he was taking a slide, slowly, in the Chiefs–Texans divisional game. So, that’s why Patrick Mahomes’ slide could soon be subject to verification under expanded replay assists. The new rules allow video officials to intervene and correct on-field calls if someone objects. Extending them to quarterback slides could help iron out situations that sparked a lot of controversy this season.

Meanwhile, critics have accused Patrick Mahomes of flopping during the Texans game as well, though no referee flagged him for it. Mahomes even defended the flop himself when asked about it on 96.5’s The Fan. He said, “I would say the only one I felt like I probably did too much was the one on the sideline where I didn’t get the flag.” But he also added, “I feel like I’ve just continued to play the game, and I just try to win, and whatever happens kind of happens.” This has sparked further debate. 

The NFL could roll out the new tweak to the rules from the 2025 season as sliding and flopping has become a mounting issue, doing injustice to defensive players. But let’s see if the NFL will be able to seriously ‘tackle’ this issue in the upcoming season.