CELEBRITY
Patrick Mahomes raised the ‘urgency’ in Chiefs practice all week before his meltdown on the field over offside touchdown vs Bills, claims NFL touchline reporter: ‘He’s a fiery guy – we just don’t ever see it’
Patrick Mahomes ‘took the sense of urgency up’ all week in Chiefs practice before his on-field meltdown against the Bills, according to reports.
Mahomes let the red mist descend after Kansas City’s controversial defeat by Buffalo on Sunday, which saw the hosts denied a last-gasp touchdown at Arrowhead by an offensive offside call.
After he completed a superb move by running through to the end zone with just over a minute to play, Chiefs wideout Kadarius Toney was deemed to have been in an offside position before they snapped the ball, meaning his potential game-winning touchdown was ruled out.
The decision, which has since been proven correct, did not go down well with Mahomes, who threw his helmet down in disgust and had to be restrained by teammates while furiously protesting against it.
The Kansas City quarterback has been heavily criticized over his antics, with FOX Sports’ Skip Bayless claiming he was left surprised by his ‘spoiled brat behavior’.
Yet after witnessing the fallout on the touchline at Arrowhead, NFL reporter James Palmer has revealed that Mahomes is known as a ‘fiery guy’ behind the scenes and has often ‘lost his mind’ either in the locker room or the practice field.
‘That was one of the things that my eyes went directly to when the game ended,’ Palmer said about the controversy on NFL Plus show ‘The Insiders’.
‘He was being held back by essentially the entire offensive line, every one of them was having a hand on Patrick Mahomes trying to hold him back.
‘Now if you talk to teammates, and I did talk to a couple of them in the locker room, Patrick Mahomes we all know is a fiery guy. We just don’t ever see it.
‘It has happened in the locker room at halftime, it has happened during the practice week when he has lost his mind. But this is the first time that fans and everyone watching the NFL actually saw him in this sense.
‘What I had heard was, he kind of took the sense of urgency up this week. They knew what was at stake and what’s gone on over the last several weeks, and that I think to me also plays a part in this.’
As well as Mahomes, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid also drew criticism for labelling the offside decision ’embarrassing’ after the defeat.
Yet on Monday, Reid admitted that Toney did not check with the officials whether he was standing in an offside position or not before the controversial play.
‘Normally he (Toney) just looks over to the sideline and gets an okay and on that one he just happened not to,’ he said.
‘So that would be the coaching point. Just make sure you check with the guy on the side just to see if you’re aligned.
‘He’s not lining offsides on purpose. Listen, he was two inches or an inch away from being legal.
‘You can argue both sides of it for both teams. I guess the league is trying to clean that up.’