The Josh Innes Show - Great News! The Refs Say They Aren't Helping The Chiefs!

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

First Off, we say hello to listener Danny in Illinois. Thanks for listening, Pal! The NFL Referees Association says the officials are not favoring the Chiefs. Well, this is fantastic news! We can all rest easy. As I've said before, most people don't believe you are conspiring to fix the games for the Chiefs...but you are giving them virtually every 50/50 call. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Battle of Ontario is on, and FanDuel's your home for live betting the series. With features like live SGPs, build a parlay any game, any period. Or stack multiple matchups onto one slip with Same Game Parlay Plus. What's better than playoff hockey? Overtime playoff hockey. Get more from the game with live overtime markets. Download FanDuel today and get more with North America's number one sportsbook. Please play responsibly. 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. The following was recorded from inside an ice plunge.

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All the time. Get the RBC ION Plus Visa. Conditions apply. Visit rbc.com slash ioncards. Howdy, jamokes. What's going on? It's Josh. Glad you're hanging out today. It is about 10.30ish on Wednesday.

I just got done taking Ross for a walk, and it started sleeting and damn near snowing on us, and it was cold, and my face was frozen, and my glasses were covered nice. But this dog is relentless. He's a tank. He doesn't give a shit. He's like, guess what, motherfucker? And just kept on trucking. So good for Ross.

But I'm glad you guys are listening. I'm glad you guys have been checking out the podcast. I'm glad that you guys have enjoyed the podcast. I'm glad to tell your friends about the podcast. I've gotten some emails from folks that are very nice. Let me see here. Like this one. This comes from Danny from Illinois. Thank you, Danny. Hello, Josh. My name is Danny. I'm a 23-year-old Eagles fan born and raised in Illinois. Go birds. I really enjoy listening to your podcast. It's very entertaining and I like how you cover various topics, whether they're related to sports or not. Your podcast has helped me get through a difficult time in my life because a few weeks ago my dog

passed away and it's been a tough it's been tough on me emotionally but your podcast has helped me get through it anyway keep up the great work and I hope you find another radio job soon sincerely Danny well Danny I appreciate that and I'm sorry to hear about your dog. It is truly the worst thing. Like Luther's birthday is coming up here in, I guess, five days. February 10th is when Luther's birthday is coming up. And Jelly's like, how do we celebrate it? And part of me is like, well, that's kind of dumb to celebrate the birthday of a dead dog, right? Are we like lunatics but then the other part of me is

like i've got a a picture of my dog on the wall with a halo above his head that was tense the drawn by a nice lady so like how fucking crazy am i i sat around and cried for weeks when my dog died so is it really that ridiculous to be like you know what we're gonna you know commemorate our dog's first birthday without us. He would have been 13, by the way. Luther would have been 13. And as we talked about on the pod before, the part that sucks is that in terms of his overall getting around and health, I think that dog could have lived to have been 20 when I talk about he didn't really limp around,

he had energy. He could run. Like that's the part that sucked is that Luther had, like every now and then, he had arthritis and stuff like that sometimes, and he'd have to take certain medications because sometimes he, you know, he went to the chiropractor. He talked about ridiculous. Our dog would go to the chiropractor, you know, all that stuff.

But like when we, like I guess what I'm trying to say is there was never a time that I was like oh yeah this dog is on the verge of death until he was like on the verge of death like the day that he died you know what I'm saying like I never there was never a point where I'm like boy he's decrepit and just kind of slinks around and has progressively gotten worse and his walks aren't very long. Like a couple of weeks before he died, the boy went on like a four mile walk and he goes to bars and he's like such a good boy and he goes to daycare. But man, when that shit hit him, whatever it was, that kind of cancer that kind of flooded his lungs, I mean, it hit him hard. And that's

when it really started looking obvious that something wasn't going well with him. When I would try to take him for a walk and like he would go you know 10 feet and then turn around like that was the point where I was kind of like okay this isn't good then we brought him in to get these tests done and they're like listen he doesn't have very long and then we you know we had to had to put him down later that day but like I feel you man so Danny I uh I know what it's like man that sucks and if you're a 23 year old dude and I don't want to you like, man. That sucks. And if you're a 23-year-old dude, and I don't want to make assumptions about your situation here, but if you're a 23-year-old dude, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you probably had that dog since you were a teenager

or since you were a young kid, middle schooler, maybe, maybe even longer. I don't know. So if that's the case, if you're 23 and you've had that dog for an extended period of time it's one thing to have had a dog from the time you were I guess I would have been 26 to about the time I'm 38 37 right so it's one thing to have it when you're in your mid-20s into your damn near 40s as an adult it's another thing to have a dog when you're a kid and then as you're getting into adulthood your dog dies so that sucks reminds me though of an episode of the king of queens which is one of the most brilliant shows ever where uh doug has to find out that his parents have been lying about his dog for his entire life that they just keep replacing his dog because they're afraid to tell

him that the dog died and Carrie unearths it. One of the great episodes of King of Queens. They're like, Doug, isn't it kind of odd to you that your dog is 40? And great episode. So you know what, Danny, if you want to put a smile on your face, go find King of Queens. It's on Peacock. And go watch the episode where Doug finds out that his parents have been replacing his dog for his entire life. Good episode, quality program, lovely show. It's on the Mount Rushmore sitcoms right up there with Coach. Two of the best sitcoms ever. I was watching Coach last night. You want more dog comedy? Go see Luther Van Damme's dog Quincy on Coach. He's a basset hound. Fantastic. But anyway, thank you,

Danny, though. I appreciate you listening in Illinois. Hopefully, for your sake, the birds win. Hopefully, for all of our sakes, the birds win because I'm really sick of the Chiefs, and it would bring me joy to see these miserable, whiny, cunty, sniveling Chiefs people get their comeuppance. It would be a thing of beauty. But then they'd probably find themselves in a weird spot, wouldn't they? Here, hold on. Let's play some commercials and we'll continue. All right, if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you got to check out Pick 6 from DraftKings. When

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So you can say, oh, the refs rigged it, did they now? Oh, so they rigged all of our championships. Well, why didn't they win this one? Probably not. That's probably not something they're rooting for. But it's something they can fall back on. Like, at least they have a soft landing if they lose. If the Chiefs lose, they can say, well, they didn't rig it for us, did they? This confirms it that they didn't rig it for us.

But, of course, most people still believe they do. It's funny. I've been reading these stories from the Super Bowl week from the NFL referees and how they're bitching about how the conspiracy theories are insulting. Let me read you this. NFL Referees Association calls conspiracy theories both insulting and preposterous. I fear the referees doth protest too much. On Monday, Commissioner Roger Goodell pushed back on the suggestion that game officials favor the Chiefs. On Tuesday, the union representing game officials issued a statement expressing appreciation for the commissioner's remarks.

Commissioner Goodell's comments that it is ridiculous to presume NFL officials are not doing everything possible to make the right call on every play is spot on. NFL Referees Association Executive Director Scott Green said, officiating crews do not work the same team more than twice in a regular season. It is insulting and preposterous to hear conspiracy theories that somehow 17 officiating crews of 138 officials are colluding to assist one team. See, I think it is preposterous to say that. When you say it that way, you're right. You've actually worded that very well. It is preposterous to say that. When you say it that way, you're right. You've actually worded that very well. It is preposterous to think that 138 officials and 17 officiating crews are colluding. That said, it is not preposterous to think that the commissioner of the National Football League would prefer to have the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl with Taylor Swift and everything that goes with it. That is not preposterous. So two things here. Let's operate under the

assumption that it is preposterous. It is preposterous that the officials are getting treated this way. It's insulting and preposterous to hear conspiracy theories that somehow 17 officiating crews consisting of 138 officials are colluding to assist one team. Okay, so if that's preposterous, then you guys are just really shitty at your jobs. So really, there is no winning for you here, officials. You're either colluding to guarantee that the Chiefs win or to give favorable calls to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs that extend big drives and continue big drives and big games that come up in huge spots. That's been my contention the whole time.

It's not that the Chiefs get more calls than everybody. It's that the Chiefs get bigger calls in bigger spots than anybody. And when you see it in the Chiefs versus the Texans, you see it in the Chiefs versus the Bills, you see it in virtually every game they've played this year. There's some big call at the end of a game or at a big point in the game that totally turns the game. So either you guys are calling things in favor of Patrick Mahomes or you're really shitty at your jobs. And if you're really shitty at your jobs, you should actually be held accountable publicly. The problem I have with the way officials are treated in every single sport

is that we baby officials. Like when a guy goes out and drops a pass, when Mark Andrews drops a pass in the end zone, he has to answer to that. Now it took him days to do it and he didn't talk to the media and he kind of cowered and did it on social media, fine, whatever. But in theory, when a guy drops that pass, a guy then has to step up and speak to the media right after the game. Dude barely gets time to get out of the shower. He's standing there with his dick in his hand and a towel. And he has to talk to a bunch of media members who couldn't hold his jock, couldn't hold his dick while he takes a leak. And he has to answer to all of us about why he dropped the ball. When Lamar throws an interception at the end of a game,

he has to answer to the media immediately after that game. When he's full on, emotional, has very little time to think about it, he has to walk up to a podium or stand around his locker and answer questions for why that just happened. You know who doesn't have to do that? Officials. The refs don't have to do that. The refs are not held accountable.

They are by the public, but they are not held accountable by their employers on a public level. They are not scrutinized the same way. Like, I remember, I don't know if this is the case anymore. I don't think it is. But early in the days, this might have even been before instant replay in baseball, but they would deliberately not show bang-bang plays on the Jumbotron. Why?

Because they didn't want to put the officials in a bad spot. Now, being a ref is not an easy thing. Being an umpire is not an easy thing. Calling balls and strikes, probably not an easy thing. I respect the fact that it's not easy. It's also not easy to throw a ball 70 yards. It's also not easy to run for 100 yards in a game. It's also not easy to block a 350-pound nose tackle, but the people that do that are forced to respond to it on a daily basis. They have to answer to it. The NFL refs get to make bad calls and then slink away into a tunnel, and we never hear from it. Now, they get criticized internally. They have to deal with their boss, but we want public scorching. We want them to

have a reckoning in front of people. I want a ref to answer questions. Is that too much to ask? Because if they don't have to answer questions, look, I'm not even asking them to have to answer questions right after the game while they're showering after reffing the game, like a player has to. Just answer a question at any point after a game. Let's see here. This story reads, that's a bit strong and it teeters on the possibility of protesting too much. The fans who believe that the Chiefs are receiving assistance from the officials believe that the league has made it clear to officials that they should assist the Chiefs. A conspiracy among the 138 officials isn't needed if they're taking

directions from 345 Park Avenue. That is my point, pro football talk, and that's the point I've been trying to make. I don't believe that they all get together in a dark room, you know, like it's a meeting of the skulls, and they're all hanging out in like some bunker underground somewhere, but I do believe that there is a benefit to having the Chiefs in these games. And if it wasn't the case, then why would the Chiefs get every single controversial call go their way? That's all I want to know. Tell me that. Why would it be a situation when, like, I cannot think of controversial calls that the Chiefs don't get. I can't think of them. They may not get every controversial call, like every bang-bang play, may not have a flag thrown and go against them or go in their favor, but I sure as shit can't fathom or remember any big calls where I go,

holy shit, that changed the game and that was a call against Kansas City. So explain that. Explain. Are they just so fucking good at everything they do that they just conveniently have to be cheated against? Teams have to cheat against the Chiefs to try to beat them. That is the only way to stop this juggernaut. Continuing. There are many things that fans can worry about over a 17-game season, such as coaching decisions, player injuries, the weather, and yes, even close calls on incredible plays made by incredible athletes.

But you can rest assured that on every single down, NFL officials, both on the field and in the replay booth, are doing everything humanly possible to officiate every play correctly. Dot, dot, dot for the Chiefs. You're not going to change people's opinions of this. People have determined and decided that they think the chiefs get preferential treatment. And if they feel that the chiefs get preferential treatment, there is no evidence for someone who believes that to change their opinion. Do you think the words of the guy that like

oversees the referees is going to change your opinion? It's kind of like saying, well, you know, we talked to the guy who's the head of the fraternal order of police and he says they don't profile black guys. Well, what the fuck is the guy from the fraternal order of the police going to say? What is the spokesperson? Like, I remember we had the spokesperson from the fraternal order of police on during one of the LaShawn McCoy incidents. I forgot which one it was. It was something at a club or some shit. I think it was LaShawn McCoy.

It's one of the Eagles players players and we had him on and like i'm in the middle of interviewing this guy and my thought is like what exactly is a guy whose job it is to represent police officers what exactly is this guy gonna tell me that isn't in favor of police officers like is he gonna go yeah we do go out and arrest an inordinate amount of black guys and we profile them. Like, a lot of times we just drive around neighborhoods looking for black guys looking suspicious so we can arrest them. Like, what exactly is he going to say? And in the same case, what are you going to get from the guy that oversees the refs? What is he going to tell you?

Like, yeah, we're corrupt as shit and we're terrible at our jobs. Like, he's not going to tell you either one of those things. He's going to tell you that they're trying their damnedest. We're trying so hard to get the calls correct. We must get these calls correct because the integrity of the game is at stake and these people are trying their damnedest. So either they're trying really hard and they fucking suck or they're giving Patrick Mahomes the benefit of calls. And by the way, kind of like how I feel about the media, right? People talk about whether media is biased or unbiased or whatever the media is, right? You get that all the time. Well, the media, do we trust the media? The media is more biased than

it's ever been. Or can you trust the media? Can you trust the news? Well, the answer is obviously no, because the news is delivered by humans. Humans have biases. And in 2025, you're allowed to show your biases more than you've ever been allowed to. Like back in the 1960s, Walter Cronkite felt some way. I haven't watched any documentaries about the guy, so I don't know how he felt politically. I'm sure probably left wing like a lot of these guys, like Dan Rather, super left-wing guy, right? But part of it was you tried to hide that and be like, all right, I'm not a super left-wing guy. I'm just here to deliver the news. Now, it is expected that you get on the news and tell people that you're super left-wing or you're super right- wing and deliver the news through that slant. But the news has always been delivered through the eyes of the person delivering the news. And the person delivering the news can control the way they deliver it, the tone that they deliver it.

They can determine it by the way they cover stories or the stories they even decide to cover. So biases have always existed. There is a 0% way or a zero way for you to go out and say, okay, look, that was a completely unbiased delivering of the news. You cannot do it. it doesn't exist in 2025 and it's the same way with referees and their guy overseeing the referees here there is no way a ref can come out and say uh definitively like yep they're doing the best they can and there's

no cheating and that anybody's going to believe it because he is the guy that oversees the refs so he's either going to tell you we are terrible at our fucking jobs or we're trying to fix it for Patrick Mahomes. And even saying fixing it for Patrick Mahomes isn't necessarily the right terminology. I don't believe they are, but I believe Patrick Mahomes does get preferential calls. And you cannot tell me it is coincidence that almost every week there is something that happens where you go, holy shit. You cannot tell me that. You cannot tell me when you go early in the season and you watch the Bengals who thought they had gotten an early season win against the Chiefs and then magically

flag into the game. And you want to tell me if it went the other way, that call would have been made? Bullshit. It wouldn't have been. That's the problem people have, and that's what people deal with when they talk about the Chiefs. So there you go. All right. Let's see here. Let's move on to some other stuff. We'll do that here in just a sec.