Patrick Mahomes went berserk on a referee Sunday night after an offensive offsides call negated a late touchdown for the Chiefs against the Bills.
Mahomes found Travis Kelce over the middle of the field with 1:20 remaining, and the tight end lateralled the ball to Kadarius Toney, who scampered into the endzone to give the hosts a lead.
But Toney had lined up in the neutral zone before the play, drawing a flag and ultimately erasing the score, which would have given Kansas City a 23-20 lead pending an extra point.
Mahomes’ last gasp attempt to keep the Chiefs’ drive alive moments later fell incomplete, and the quarterback was absolutely livid on the sideline.
He slammed down his helmet and appeared to yell at a referee, ‘We played our f****** a**** off and you call offensive offsides!’
‘That’s f******g terrible!,’ he also said.
He had to be held back by his teammates during the tense moment.
The quarterback continued to complain about the call when he greeted the Bills’ Josh Allen after the game.
‘Wildest f****** call I’ve ever seen… f****** terrible,’ he said.
Mahomes said after the game, ‘It’s tough to swallow. Not only from me, and football in general, to take away greatness like that, for a guy like Travis to make a play like that, you want to see the guys on the field decide the game.
‘They’re human. They make mistakes. But every week, we’re talking about something… It’s the call. Just in that moment. Not for myself. To have a flag change the outcome of the game. I’ve never had offensive offsides called. If it does, they warn you. There wasn’t a warning the entire game. And then you make a call like that in the final minute? Another game, we’re talking about the refs. It’s not what we want for the NFL. It’s not what we want for football.’
Fans thought that Mahomes’ scorn should have been directed at Toney rather than the referees, who correctly determined that the receiver was offsides.
‘Mahomes is throwing a nutty but but he will see in the film that Toney was offisdes,’ one wrote on X.
‘Mahomes bitching out a ref for an obvious offensive offsides,’ another said. ‘Lost a ton of respect for Patrick there.’
Many also marveled at the pure rage that the usually even-keeled Mahomes displayed.
‘They broke Mahomes man, idk if I’ve ever seen him lose his cool like that,’ Mike Golic Jr. wrote.
‘Atypical of Patrick Mahomes to be so openly angry,’ ESPN’s Ed Werder said. ‘Perhaps reflects his general frustration even while screaming at officiating crew.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid was extremely frustrated as well, saying afterwards, ‘Usually I get a warning before something like that happens. … It’s a bit embarrassing in the National Football League for that to take place. … I’ve been in the league for a long time. Haven’t had one like that.’
With the loss, the Chiefs have now last four of their last six games, and fell to 8-5.
The Bills improved to 7-6 and kept their playoff hopes alive.
