You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to notice that two changes approved for the 2025 NFL season can ultimately be traced to a pair of Buffalo Bills’ postseason losses to the Kansas City Chiefs.
When a fan brought that point up with Shannon Sharpe, the former NFL star and now media personality scorched the Bills during his latest Night Cap podcast.
The NFL announced this week it will use Sony’s Hawk-Eye technology to measure first downs. In last season’s AFC Championship Game, the Chiefs scored the go-ahead touchdown after Bills quarterback Josh Allen failed to get a first down on a quarterback sneak. Replays showed he appeared to have it.
The Chiefs go-ahead TD drive was set up by a ruling that Josh Allen did not get a Bills first down.
Jim Nantz, Tony Romo, Gene Steratore react to the ruling.
“Wow.” – Romo
“I felt like he gained it by about a third of the football…” -Steratore
“I agree.” – Nantz 🏈🦓🎙️ https://t.co/R4Xs0phM0P pic.twitter.com/8xvT1t1rdn
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 27, 2025
In another change for 2025, the NFL announced that each team will get a possession in regular-season overtime games. That rule had already been in force for the postseason, prompted by the controversy following the Chiefs’ win over the Bills in the 2021 AFC title game. The Chiefs took the ball first in overtime and scored to win.
“Chiefs fan points out the NFL changes the rules the last two times the Buffalo Bills lost,” Sharpe said.
“Is it coincidental?” co-host Chad Johnson asked.
“No,” Sharpe said. “Too many coincidences is not a coincidence.”
Johnson said he liked the new overtime rule; Sharpe not so much.
“It evens the playing field and makes the game fair,” Johnson said.
Sharpe then clowned the Bills for that 2021 AFC Championship loss, saying they deserved to lose in overtime after allowing the Chiefs to set up a field goal in the final 13 seconds of regulation.
“Hey, Buffalo, you got to be on the right side of history,” Sharpe said. “Ya’ll had a lead with 13 seconds left. Listen, Ocho, you deserve to lose if you have a lead with 13 seconds and you allow a team to get in field-goal range, you deserve to lose. You earned that loss.
“This is what the Chiefs fans are saying: ‘Damn, they want Buffalo to get to the Super Bowl so bad, they change the rules to help them.’ And guess what, they’re going to find another way to lose.”
About Arthur Weinstein
Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.