Mahomes accepts penalty for blasting officials

Adam Teicher, ESPN Staff WriterDec 21, 2023, 02:51 PM ET
Close
- Covered Chiefs for 20 seasons for Kansas City Star
- Joined ESPN in 2013

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said he will accept the consequences for yelling at and being publicly critical of the officials after a Week 14 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

“I had outbursts on the sideline and everybody saw it on a big game, and so there’s going to be consequences to that,” said Mahomes, who was fined $50,000 by the NFL last week. “Now you’ve just got to live with those consequences, learn from it, become better from it and not try to let that happen again. But we kind of just kept it moving. That was a couple weeks ago now, and now we’re just focused on the Raiders and how we can do whatever we can to beat them.”

Mahomes had been upset that wide receiver Kadarius Toney was penalized for being offside late in the fourth quarter, nullifying what would have been the go-ahead touchdown against the Bills. The Chiefs eventually turned the ball over on downs and the Bills ran out the clock.

Mahomes was again visibly upset in the fourth quarter of last week’s win over the New England Patriots, but not at the officials. Mahomes appeared frustrated on the sideline after throwing an interception on a pass that had been deflected by Toney to a defender.

The Chiefs led 27-10 at the time, but the Patriots scored a touchdown after the turnover, tightening what had been a lopsided game.

Mahomes said his frustration was aimed at giving the Patriots the ball back and putting the Chiefs’ defense in a bad spot — not at Toney.

“The defense was playing so well, in that second half especially, and I knew in that moment of the game, you don’t want to have turnovers and stuff like that,” Mahomes said. “You want to either score, obviously the first goal, but the second goal is to flip the field, let our defense play.

“Getting [the Patriots] into a position where they’re basically at a one play touchdown or whatever that was, that’s on us as an offense. There’s no added frustration towards any player. I know how hard these guys work. I’ve said it all year long. I see how they practice. I see how they work after practice, before practice, and I know that they’re doing whatever they can to help the team out in the best way possible. They always know that I’m going to have that confidence that I’m going to keep firing the ball to them, and that’s just how I roll. Whenever I see the guy put in the work every single day, I have trust he’s going to go out there and make the plays happen.”

The Chiefs would clinch an eighth straight AFC West title by beating the Raiders on Monday at Arrowhead Stadium. Mahomes, in an acknowledgement of the Chiefs’ inconsistent season, said they had more to gain in the final three regular-season games than wrapping up a playoff spot.

“You always want to be playing your best football going into the playoffs,” Mahomes said. “Let’s put that complete game together. I think if we can do that and start getting better and better these last few games, we can get to the playoffs and be playing our best football, then I think the AFC is wide open and we’ll be able to go out there and try to find a way to get to the Super Bowl.”