KC Chiefs’ Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes Fined for Comments on Officials
Following a controversial ending to Week 14's Kansas City Chiefs versus Buffalo Bills game, Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes were quite fired up. Less than a week later, they're paying the price — literally — for letting their emotions get the best of them.
Per a Saturday morning report from Pro Football Talk on X (formerly Twitter), Reid and Mahomes are being fined for "comments critical of officiating" made last Sunday. On Saturday afternoon, it was reported by Adam Schefter of ESPN that Reid was fined $100,000 and Mahomes was fined $50,000. Mahomes's fine also extends to "unsportsmanlike conduct during the fourth quarter of Sunday's game."
Late in Week 14's contest, a Kansas City touchdown was wiped away by wide receiver Kadarius Toney being penalized for an offensive offsides infraction. The decision to throw to the flag and nullify what would've been a go-ahead touchdown didn't sit well with the Chiefs, leading to plenty of discussion about it in the aftermath. Reid, stepping up to the podium first after the game, referred to it as "embarrassing" for the NFL.
"It was a heck of a football game down to the end," Reid said. "Very disappointed that it ended the way it did. Normally, I never use any of this as an excuse, but normally I get a warning before something like that happens in a big game. A bit embarrassing in the National Football League for that to take place."
Mahomes, following up Reid, also took a pretty firm stance against the call.
"It's the calls, man, just in that moment," Mahomes said. "It's not even for myself or for me. I know how much everybody puts into this game and for it to happen on a flag changing the outcome of the game in that moment... I've played seven years and never had offensive offsides called. That's elementary school — we talk about [it], we point to the ref and do all that different type of stuff and it doesn't get called. If it does, they warn you, and there was no warning throughout the entire game. And then you wait until there's a minute left in the game to make a call like that? It's tough, man. Lost for words, man. Regardless of if we win or lose, just for it to end with another game where we're talking about the refs, it's just not what we want for the NFL or for football."
Both Reid and Mahomes walked their comments back a bit this week, but the damage was already done. The NFL wasn't a fan of their choice of words on Sunday, subsequently taking action just over 24 hours before the Chiefs take on the New England Patriots in Week 15. With the national spotlight on Kansas City as one of the best teams in the league and Mahomes being one of the faces of football, the NFL clearly wanted to send a reminder that being this critical of officials isn't going to fly on the league's watch. On the bright side, both sides can now move forward and put this in the past.
