Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes seemingly let a referee's call get the best of him following Kansas City's 20-17 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
Microphones caught Mahomes using expletives to express his frustration over a call to Bills quarterback Josh Allen. The call was an offensive offsides penalty that replays showed referees correctly called.
The penalty turned out to be huge as it took a late touchdown off the scoreboard, which ultimately cost the Chiefs a chance at winning Sunday's game.
One day later, speaking to 610 Sports in Kansas City, Mahomes stated his regret over the comments.
"I love this game, and I love my teammates," he said. "I want to go out there and put everything on the line to win, but obviously you can’t do that, can’t be that way towards officials or really anybody in life. So, I’ll probably regret acting like that. But more than anything, I regretted the way I acted towards Josh [Allen] after the game, because he had nothing to do with it. I was still hot and emotional, but you can’t do that."
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The play that led to the called-back touchdown was a bit unscripted, Mahomes said. The pass to tight end Travis Kelce was on the mark, but Mahomes did not expect Kelce would then lateral the ball to wide receiver Kadarius Toney, who took the ball the rest of the way into the end zone.
But it was Toney who, standing in the neutral zone, was whistled for the pre-snap penalty.
"It was 100% improv," Mahomes said. "That’s just a great player making a great play in a big-time moment. To have the knowledge of your surroundings to know that guy is wide open across the field and getting the ball to him to try to make a play for the team. It truly was a really cool play. It stinks that it didn’t count, but it shows the type of player he is."
While the Chiefs are still in good shape to win a division title and host a first-round playoff game, the defeat puts Kansas City two games behind the Baltimore Ravens for the AFC crown.
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