Skip Bayless has accused Patrick Mahomes of acting like a ‘spoiled brat’ after the Chiefs were denied a potential game-winning touchdown against the Bills on Sunday night.
The red mist descended for Mahomes when an offside call denied Kansas City a last-gasp touchdown against Buffalo, which would have moved them 23-20 in front with just over a minute to play.
Chiefs wideout Kadarius Toney was judged to have lined up in the neutral zone before he eventually took a pass from Travis Kelce and ran through for the touchdown, meaning what looked like the game-winning moment was erased for offensive offside.
Despite photos showing Toney was clearly offside, Mahomes slammed his helmet to the ground when their subsequent drive fell incomplete, before ripping into the officials for making a ‘terrible’ call.
Yet according to FOX Sports’ Bayless, his anger stemmed from a sense of entitlement as the reigning NFL MVP and star player of the Super Bowl champions.
Patrick Mahomes acted like a ‘spoiled brat’ when the Chiefs were denied a late touchdown against the Bills on Sunday, says Skip Bayless
Mahomes lost his cool after an offensive offside decision went against Kansas City late on
‘Post-Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes has become the face of this league,’ he said on Undisputed. ‘He’s done a lot of great things. He is an all-time great player. He’s been an all-time great off the field also; role model, wise, how he carries himself, handles himself – until that moment at the end of that game.
‘I was shocked by how he lost it, because silly me, I first thought he was throwing a fit about Toney being offside. I thought he’d just lost his mind about, “how dare this kid do this to us and blow this game for us because we’re teetering, we’re reeling”.
‘But no, it was all directed at the referees. And that was spoiled brat behavior to me.
‘You’re so caught up in, “don’t you know who we are? We’re the defending champs. I’ve won two of these, I’ve played in three of these. How dare you referees do this to me in my house, to Travis Kelce in his house.”‘
Bayless also felt that Mahomes’ anger was because of the heroics Kelce produced to find Toney for the touchdown, admitting it would have gone down as an ‘all time’ great piece of play.
‘I do think it tore Patrick’s heart out that Kelce made a play that was all time. It was all time,’ he continued.
‘It was a little backyard because I don’t think they called it in the huddle, I could be wrong. But they say he will do that regularly in practice, and he threw a strike from about 15 yards away to, ironically, Toney, who is out of the play and then all of a sudden he gets loose at the end.
Replays showed that Kadarius Toney (bottom, center) was offside when the ball was snapped
Bayless took aim at Mahomes for his explosive outburst after the Chiefs were beaten
‘It was a beautiful play and it would have been the talk of the town in the world today. We would have talked about it like it was the play of the year because it possibly would have won the game.’
Chiefs coach Andy Reid leapt to his quarterback’s defense after the game, insisting the late offside call was ’embarrassing’ for the NFL.
Bayless, though, believes he had no other choice but to support Mahomes after his outburst on the field.
He concluded: ‘I thought Andy had no choice after the game than to defend his quarterback by saying it’s embarrassing for the National Football League, because I think Andy knew in his heart of hearts it wasn’t embarrassing.
‘They just called the rule by the rule.’