Photograph: Ed Zurga/AP
Patrick Mahomes says he regrets his confrontation with Josh Allen and officials after the Chiefs’ 20-17 defeat to the Bills on Sunday.
A broadcaster caught the Chiefs’ quarterback telling Allen: “Wildest fucking call I’ve ever seen. Offensive offsides on that play, man. Fucking terrible.”
Mahomes was apologetic on Monday. “More than anything, I regretted the way I acted toward Josh [Allen] after the game, because he had nothing to do with it,” Mahomes said on Monday in an interview with 610 Sports Radio in Kansas City.
“Obviously you don’t want to react that way; I mean, I care, man. I love it – I love this game, and I love my teammates. 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 toward officials or really anybody in life,” Mahomes said.
Mahomes was frustrated after a go-ahead touchdown was ruled out by officials on Sunday after Kadarius Toney was called for an offside penalty. Toney caught a lateral pass from Travis Kelce – who had received a pass from Mahomes – and ran the ball in for a score that almost certainly would have won the game.
Oh my God, Travis Kelce tossed it to Kadarius Toney, who goes in for the go-ahead touchdown, BUT Toney was offsides on the play.pic.twitter.com/BrdrF6SmBH
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 11, 2023
After three successive incompletions to end the game, Mahomes turned his ire towards the officials, on the field and in the post-game press conference.
“I mean it’s obviously tough to swallow, not only for me but just for football in general; to take away greatness like that for a guy like Travis [Kelce] to make a play like that, and who knows if we win,” Mahomes said. “I mean they’re human, they make mistakes, but it’s every week we’re talking about something and all I can do is go out there and give everything I have and I’m proud of the guys, that’s what we did and it was a great football game that ended – another great football game that just ended like that it’s just tough.”
Mahomes also acknowledged that the officials’ call on Toney was correct. “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.”
Chiefs coach Andy Reid also took aim at the officials after the loss. “[It’s] a bit embarrassing in the National Football League for that to take place,” Reid said.
Reid also walked back his initial comments in a press conference on Monday. “Do we need to line up right? Yeah, we do,” Reid said. “We got to take care of that. We can’t put it in the officials’ hands.”
Elsewhere, the Los Angeles Chargers confirmed that star quarterback Justin Herbert will miss the rest of the season with a finger injury. Herbert has thrown for 3,134 yards and 20 touchdowns this season, with seven interceptions. Backup quarterback Easton Stick will assume the starting job for the 5-7 Chargers, who are now likely to miss the postseason, putting more pressure on head coach Brandon Staley.
