Referee John Hussey assigned to the Chiefs vs. Lions game

Nine-year NFL veteran John Hussey and his crew have been assigned to the Kansas City Chiefs season opener against the Detroit Lions according to the folks at Football Zebras. During the Patrick Mahomes era, Hussey has officiated nine Chiefs games. The team has a 7-2 record in those games, including a 1-1 record last season. He has […]

Charles Goldman — NFL Managing Editor
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Nine-year NFL veteran John Hussey and his crew have been assigned to the Kansas City Chiefs season opener against the Detroit Lions according to the folks at Football Zebras.

During the Patrick Mahomes era, Hussey has officiated nine Chiefs games. The team has a 7-2 record in those games, including a 1-1 record last season. He has officiated just three Lions games since 2018, with Detroit holding a 1-2 record in those games. The last game Hussey officiated for the Chiefs was the team's regular season matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals in 2022. The last game for the Lions was the Week 3 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in 2022.

Ultimately, this officiating crew was assigned to the season opener this year because they were one of the best in the league last season. 

In 17 games officiated, Hussey and his crew had the fourth-fewest total flags with 201 and the third-fewest penalties in the league with 161. Their 40 dismissed penalties were good for the fourth-most in the NFL in 2022. 

Hussey averaged the fewest defensive holding penalties by any NFL referee last season, which could come into play in this game. The Lions were among the league leaders in defensive holding penalties (8) last season, while Kansas City was one of the league's biggest beneficiaries (16 times). Here's the big catch, though: Three of those eight defensive holding calls by the Lions came in their game against the Vikings, which was officiated by Hussey. 

Another thing to watch out for is unnecessary roughness penalties. Hussey and his crew led the NFL with 16 unnecessary roughness calls in 2022. The Chiefs had six unnecessary roughness calls against them last year while Detroit had four. Two of those calls against Kansas City actually came in the Week 2 game against the Los Angeles Chargers, which Hussey and his crew officiated.

Featured image via Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

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