Dean Blandino can’t even get his own brother to believe the NFL isn’t rigging games for Taylor Swift and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Now a rules analyst for Fox, Blandino is an ex-NFL referee and the league’s former head of officiating. Surely, he’s heard from plenty of tin foil hat-wearing fans and frustrated sports gamblers as they attempt to spew conspiracies about the NFL being rigged. But Blandino joined Damon Amendolara and Mike Babchick Tuesday morning on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio and admitted his own brother is among those conspiracy theorists.
“My brother’s like, ‘They want Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl!'”
Even Dean Blandino’s brother thinks the #NFL is rigged😂@DeanBlandino @DamonAmendo @Babchik
🎙️https://t.co/rWI7qpx75V pic.twitter.com/foX0HG0R9G
— Mad Dog Sports Radio (@MadDogRadio) January 28, 2025
“The Chiefs have gotten the benefit of calls, but good teams make their own breaks,” Blandino said. “My brother, who is convinced that the league is rigged, that is convinced that I signed an NDA when I left the league office that I cannot tell anybody that it is rigged because I was head of officiating…There’s no conspiracy. The officials, there’s too many variables, there’s too much going on.
“To me, it’s the hardest sport, when you think about football with seven different officials, to say, ‘I’m gonna rig this game,’ or the game is rigged from the league office down. The officials are just trying to get it right.”
Blandino added that his brother has subscribed to the same theory as Skip Bayless and others, insisting that the NFL is fixing games for the Chiefs because “they want Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl.”
Everyone has friends and family members who they don’t see eye to eye with on certain things. And obviously, Blandino can’t necessarily convince all of them that the NFL isn’t rigged. But his own brother? You would think seeing your brother work as a referee and head of officiating should be enough to dispel any personal concerns about the league being fixed.
Then again, you would also think Blandino (and the NFL) might want to keep his brother’s conspiracies under wraps rather than broadcast them to a national audience. They must have some interesting Thanksgiving dinner conversations.
