Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has voiced his displeasure with the antics of Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker during warmups for Sunday’s AFC Championship Game.
In a viral video posted by NFL Network’s James Palmer, Travis Kelce was seen telling Tucker to move so that Mahomes could warm up. Tucker was seen stretching right in front of Mahomes during the warmups.
Tucker wouldn’t move, so Kelce took matters into his own hands by moving Tucker’s warmup football and helmet out of Mahomes’ way:
Speaking to reporters about the dustup on Tuesday (via Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk), Mahomes called out Tucker by stating that there needs to be “respect for” both teams. According to the two-time Super Bowl champion, Tucker didn’t exactly honor his request to move his items out of Mahomes’ way:
“He does that little stuff, I think to try to get under our skin. I asked him to move his stuff. He got up and moved it, I think, two inches but didn’t move it out of the way. I was gonna let it slide, but Travis got in and moved it for me.
And after that, I wasn’t gonna let him put it back down. I have a lot of respect for him as a player, one of the best kickers of all time, probably the best kicker of all time. But at the same time, you’ve got to have respect for each team, and we all share the field, and we try to do that in a respectful way.”
If Tucker was trying to get in the heads of the Chiefs, it simply didn’t work. The visitors got the last laugh by squeaking out a 17-10 road victory in M&T Bank Stadium to punch their fourth ticket to the Super Bowl in five years.
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Mahomes was far from perfect (30 of 39 for 241 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions), but he protected the football and made the plays when KC needed it most. He put the game away with a 32-yard completion to Marques Valdes-Scantling ahead of the two-minute warning, immediately silencing the Ravens’ crowd.
The Chiefs are a 2.5-point underdog against the San Francisco 49ers heading into Super Bowl 58.
