Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs made it to their fourth Super Bowl in five years by beating the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. But one of the biggest storylines after the game had to do with a warmup confrontation between the quarterback and Justin Tucker.
The Texas Tech product was seen tossing the Ravens kicker’s kicking tee aside, with teammate Travis Kelce later throwing Tucker’s helmet, footballs, and holders off the field.
On Monday, Tucker explained he was just stretching, claiming that kickers always do part of their pregame warmups on the opposition’s area. In addition, the 34-year-old stated he never had a problem with an opponent about it. Mahomes, however, denied Tucker’s version, saying this is not the first time the Ravens kicker tries to provoke him.
“He does that little stuff, I think to try to get under our skin,” Mahomes said Tuesday on 610 Sports Radio, via Pro Football Talk. “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.”
Justin Tucker #9 of the Baltimore Ravens celebrates a fourth quarter field goal against the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game at M&T Bank Stadium on January 28, 2024 in Baltimore, Maryland.
Tucker didn’t seem to have any hard feelings about it, saying the episode was blown out of proportion while calling both Mahomes and Kelce one of the best of all time “at their respective positions”. The Chiefs star agrees that it wasn’t such a big deal, but he still complained about Tucker’s attitude.
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Justin Tucker explains what happened with Mahomes, Kelce in the warm-up
Mahomes, Chiefs still get the job done
It’s fair to wonder whether Tucker was trying to provoke the Chiefs, since the stakes were extremely high and every single detail mattered. Perhaps he was trying to help his team in every possible way, even before the kick-off. Or he could have just been doing his usual routine.
Either way, the Chiefs clearly didn’t let anything stand on their way. The offense got off to a strong start to put the team in a position to win the game, and the defense made sure to step up in the second half. In fact, it turns out that the Ravens were the ones who lost their heads in the game, and it eventually cost them a place in Super Bowl LVIII.
