Penrith Panthers star Jamie Soward has cooked up an interesting conspiracy theory over the use of the KFC-sponsored video referee in the NRL.
The playmaker told Fox Sports' The Back Page he believes there is a secret quota of decisions that have to be referred to the video referee to fulfil sponsorship obligations.
The try/no try decision graphics shown up on the big board at games, features a man with a bucket of KFC chicken in his lap. If the try is rewarded, another sneaky hand gets a drum stick. If it isn't, the hand is slapped away.
Soward has dubbed it 'chicken time' and used a recent game against the Bulldogs as an example.
"It was just at the end and Bryce Cartwright scored right in front of the ref and he went up to see if he grounded it. I said, 'oh, mate. You were a metre away. You're just going up to see if it's chicken time'," Soward said.
"We just want the referee to make a call. Like, Gavin Badger, although he's out there and he's got this horrendous beard at the moment, which no one likes, he just makes a call and you sort of run with it.
"You get some and you don't get some. They just seem to be going up there for every try and it takes away the emotion of, when you score a great try all your fans go up and then they’ve got to check it."
Soward made it clear he has no issue with KFC himself. In fact, he eats it once a week.
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