Yellow flags and the Kansas City Chiefs

There are 17 referees in the NFL. The two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs have never lost in games officiated by almost half of them.

Eight of the referees heading up crews in 2024 have yet to walk off the field in games with the Chiefs on the losing end of the score. Kansas City is 5-0 all-time in games officiated by referee Clay Martin, 4-0 in games officiated by Land Clark, Alex Kemp, Scott Novak and Brad Rogers, 3-0 with Adrian Hill, 2-0 with Tra Blake and 1-0 with Alan Eck.

The Chiefs have a winning record with 15 of the 17 current referees. The exceptions are Brad Allen and Ron Torbert. Kansas City is 4-5 all-time with Allen and 5-5 with Torbert. Kansas City won 15 of their 21 games last season with two of the six losses officiated by Allen.

On the flip side, the Chiefs were 3-0 last season in games officiated by Shawn Hochuli, including their playoff victory against the Buffalo Bills. Kansas City is 9-2 all-time with Hochuli, including a current five-game winning streak. Hochuli has been assigned Kansas City’s season opener Thursday night against the Baltimore Ravens. The Chiefs are 17-8 with Carl Cheffers, the NFL’s senior referee with 16 seasons under his belt.

Kansas City has appeared in four Super Bowls in the last five seasons and taken home three Lombardi Trophies. Since Andy Reid took over as coach in 2013, the Chiefs have won 71.5 percent of their games. They have gone to the playoffs 10 times in Reid’s 11 seasons and have a current streak of eight consecutive AFC West titles.

There were no retirements this offseason, so all 17 NFL referees from 2023 return in 2024. They will have different crews from a year ago – but the referees set the tone each season for their crews. So there is some consistency.

Cheffers has been around for 16 seasons and his crews have finished in the Top 3 in penalties in eight of those seasons. His crew has finished first in penalties four times, including back-to-back seasons in 2021-22. Only four of the current referees have led the league in penalties. In addition to Cheffers, Kemp has finished on top twice, including 2023, with Brad Allen and Hochuli once apiece.

Cheffers has averaged 13.3 penalties for 114.3 yards in his 241-game career. That puts him atop the referee grid in penalties. Rogers is the only other referee whose crews have averaged 13 penalties per game (13.2) but he’s tops in penalty yardage at 114.8 per game.

Over the last 10 seasons, there have been an average of 12.6 penalties per game for 107.3 yards. But those numbers have been coming down. There were an average of 11.4 penalties per game in 2023 for an average of 94.1 yards. Ten years ago, nine of the 17 crews assessed at least 200 penalties. Last season only three crews assessed 200-plus penalties, those of Kemp, Torbert and Blake.

Over the last 10 seasons, home teams won an average of 54.9 percent of the games. Last season the success rate increased to 55.5 percent. Home teams went 13-3 with three of the crews in 2023 – Eck, John Hussey and Rogers. Home teams went a league-worst 3-13 with the Hill crew.

Discounting Eck, who has only been a referee for one season, home teams have fared best over time with the Hussey crew, winning 64.9 percent of their games. Home teams have a losing record with five of the crews, faring worst in games officiated by Scott Novak with just a 44.2 percent success rate.

Here is the career scorecard for the 17 NFL referees: