The AFC Championship Game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs got heated way before the kick-off. During the warm-up, there seemed to be an incident on the Chiefs’ area as Justin Tucker was stretching close to Patrick Mahomes, something that didn’t sit well with neither the quarterback nor Travis Kelce.
The Chiefs signal-caller seemed to ask Tucker to move his stuff as he was practicing some passes near to the end zone, but then tossed Tucker’s kicking tee aside on multiple occasions. A few minutes later, Kelce was seen throwing the Ravens kicker’s footballs and helmet off to the side.
Tucker said that, like the rest of the kickers in the league, this is the way he prepares for every game and this has been the first time in his 12-year career someone had a problem with it. However, he doesn’t have any hard feelings about the episode.
“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 [Kelce] comes over and he just kicks my stuff and he throws my helmet. I just thought it was all just some gamesmanship, all in good fun, but they seem to be taking it a little more seriously. I’m totally willing to let it all go,” Tucker said Monday.
Justin Tucker warming up prior to the AFC Championship Game against the Chiefs.
The 34-year-old kicker went on to say that for him it was not a “big deal,” as he understands they were all just trying to get ready for a competitive game. This situation, in fact, doesn’t change Tucker’s opinion on Mahomes and Kelce, whom he consideres “two of the best players that have ever played the game at their respective positions.”
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Discipline was a big topic during the AFC Championship Game, as it may be the reason the first-seeded Ravens failed to get the job done. Baltimore committed too many penalties in the second half, when it needed to get back in the game after conceding two touchdowns in the first.
Apart from Tucker’s situation, there was another confrontation nearly an hour before the kick-off as Ravens cornerback Arthur Maulet had to be separated from Chiefs’ players by the officials.
In the end, it was Kansas City who knew how to use the tension in its favor to make the Super Bowl for the fourth time in five years. On February 11, Mahomes and company will take on the San Francisco 49ers with the Vince Lombardi trophy up for grabs.
