Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes apologizes for conduct, interaction with Josh Allen in loss to Bills

Patrick Mahomes walked back his sideline and postgame outbursts following the Chiefs’ loss to the Bills on Sunday, apologizing for his reaction to an offside call made against Kadarius Toney in the fourth quarter of the game.

The Chiefs quarterback yelled at officials from the sideline in the waning moments of Sunday’s game before complaining to Josh Allen about the offside call officials made on Toney that wiped away a touchdown that would’ve given Kansas City a late lead. He told Allen during his postgame handshake that Toney’s penalty was the “wildest f—ing call I’ve ever seen,” adding that it was “f—ing terrible.”

“Obviously, you don’t ever want to react that way,” Mahomes said in an interview with 610 Sports in Kansas City of his postgame outbursts. “I care, man. I love it. I love this game. I love my teammates. I want to go out there, put everything on the line to win. But obviously can’t do that, can’t be that way towards officials or really anybody in life. I’ll probably regret acting like that.

“But more than anything I regret the way I acted towards Josh after the game because he had nothing to do with it. I was still hot and emotional, but you can’t do that, man. It’s not a great example for kids watching the game. So I was more upset about that than I was about me on the sidelines.”

Toney was called for offside on a play that he coincidentally scored on, but not by design. After Mahomes threw a pass down the field to Travis Kelce, the tight end got well into field-goal range with his reception. But Kelce threw the ball from the Bills’ 20-yard line back to the 25-yard line to Toney, who caught Kelce’s lateral and ran the rest of the way for a score that would’ve put the Chiefs up, 23-20, with 1:12 remaining.

Mahomes was upset that the penalty wiped away a unique, game-changing touchdown and with the procedure the officials took calling the penalty on Toney when he spoke to reporters on Sunday.

“It’s obviously tough to swallow,” Mahomes said. “Not only for me, but just for football in general, to take away greatness like that, for a guy like Travis to make a play like that. Who knows if we win? But I know as fans, you want to see the guys on the field decide the game.

“In that moment, I’ve played seven years and never had offensive offsides called,” Mahomes added in his postgame comments on Sunday. “That’s elementary school. We talk about, you point to the ref, do all that different type of stuff and it doesn’t get called. If it does, they warn you. There was no warning throughout the entire game. And then you wait until there’s a minute left in the game to make a call like that? It’s tough, man. Loss for words, it’s just tough.”

Patrick Mahomes issues apology for outburst post loss to Bills

Although Mahomes previously said the call was “not what we want for the NFL and for football,” he reversed course on Monday.

“Obviously I’ve seen it now, and if he didn’t check and they weren’t good, it is a foul,” Mahomes said. “It is something you rarely see called in the NFL. But it was a foul. It’s part of playing the game, man. You learn from it, it’s part of being a person, you learn from your mistakes and try to be better next time.”

Carl Cheffers, who was the lead official for Sunday’s game, said that Toney committed an “egregious” case of being offside when he explained why a flag was thrown on that play.

“Yes, ultimately, if they looked for alignment advice, certainly we are going to give it to them,” Cheffers told the pool reporter on Sunday. “But ultimately, they are responsible for wherever they line up. And, certainly, no warning is required, especially if they are lined up so far offsides where they’re actually blocking our view of the ball. So, we would give them some sort of a warning if it was anywhere close, but this particular one is beyond a warning.”

Chiefs coach Andy Reid similarly ripped Cheffers and his officiating crew for the call in Sunday’s game, calling it “embarrassing” for the NFL. But he walked back some of his initial postgame thoughts on the call on Monday also.

“Do we need to line up right? Yeah, we do,” Reid said, adding that Toney didn’t check with the official if he was offside. “We got to take care of that. We can’t put it in the officials’ hands.”

The 8-5 Chiefs are preparing to face the 3-10 Patriots this week (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app) in hopes of ending their two-game losing streak, as well as trying to stay in the hunt for the AFC’s No. 1 seed. But before they take the field in Foxborough, Mahomes could be dealt a fine for his conduct on the sideline and postgame comments following Sunday’s loss.

Mahomes is preparing to swallow that possible pill.

“You have to accept the consequences of your actions, and that’s something that I’ve always stood by,” Mahomes said. “I obviously didn’t act in the way that I usually act, and if there’s consequences that come from that, I obviously accept those.”