Following the Chief’s victory over the Ravens 17-10 in the AFC Championship on Sunday, stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce still feel some type of way about a pre-game confrontation with Baltimore kicker Justin Tucker. Per a video posted by NFL Network National Correspondent James Palmer, the incident took place before the Chiefs’ 17-10 victory over the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday.
During warm-up for the conference championship game, Mahomes was seen kicking Tucker’s ball holder off to the side. Kelce joined in as well, clearing a path for Mahomes to warm up by tossing aside Tucker’s helmet and two balls near the goal line. Tucker is heard in the video laughing.
Per Tucker in comments obtained by Baltiomre Banner Sports, what he did wasn’t out of the ordinary.
“I’ve been doing the exact same thing for 12 years, never had a problem with anybody. I saw Patrick there trying to warm up and get some dropbacks. He asked me while I was on the ground stretching if I could move my helmet. I happily got up and moved my helmet out of the way, at least I thought it was enough out of the way. And then Travis comes over and he just kicks my stuff, he throws my helmet. I thought it was all just some gamesmanship, all in good fun. But they seemed to be taking it a little more seriously.”
Mahomes and Kelce certainly did take the moment to heart. First, Kelce took to the New Heights podcast and didn’t mince words abotu the incident.
“If you want to be a f—- d— about it, you keep your helmet, your football, and your f—- tee right where the quarterbacks are warming up. There dropping, eyes are looking left and they got a helmet down by their feet.”
Then, Kelce and Mahomes made an apperance on the Pat McAfee show on Wednesday and detailed that they had a taunt in place to mock Tucker if he missed a field goal during the AFC Championship.
“Me and Patrick were on the sideline in the forth quarter when Tucker had that chance to cut the lead to one score. If he would’ve missed that field goal, we were 100% getting a 15 yard flag,” Kelce said on the show
Mahomes followed up and said, “Of course he made it of course, he can’t let us have any fun.”
Kelce then said, “I was 1000% getting flagged for that one.”
We can only assume that the duo was joking but it seems as if their disagreement with Tucker wasn’t gamesmanship and they felt as if he was disrespecting them. Nevertheless, the Chiefs got the last laugh and are en route to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas on February 11th.
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