Patrick Mahomes regrets furious rant towards officials and Bills QB Josh Allen over costly offsides penalty

By Ben Morse, CNN

(CNN) — Superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes says he regrets his furious rant towards officials and rival QB Josh Allen after a costly offsides penalty wiped out the Kansas City Chiefs’ potential game-winning touchdown against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

Mahomes had to be held back from officials after Kadarius Toney’s fourth-quarter touchdown was ruled out after the wide receiver was adjudged to be marginally offside. TV cameras also caught Mahomes expressing his frustration to Allen as the two embraced following the ending of the game which the Bills won 20-17.

But on Monday, the 28-year-old Mahomes said his actions weren’t a good example for those watching.

“I mean, obviously, you don’t want to react that way. I mean, I care, man. I love it. I love this game, I love my teammates, and I want to go out there and put everything on the line to win. But obviously, can’t do that. Can’t be that way towards officials, or really anybody in life,” Mahomes said in an interview with 610 Sports Radio in Kansas City.

“More than anything, I regretted the way I acted toward Josh [Allen] after the game, because he had nothing to do with it. I was still hot and emotional, but you can’t do that, man. It’s not a great example for kids watching the game, so I was more upset about that than I was about me on the sideline.”

The Chiefs’ miracle fourth-quarter touchdown – which came after a moment of brilliance from tight end Travis Kelce lateraling the ball to wide receiver Toney, who in turn waltzed in for what appeared to be the game-winning touchdown – would have been a dramatic ending to a thrilling game.

An offsides penalty in football occurs when a player crosses the line of scrimmage before the snap of the ball.

After the game, both Mahomes and Chiefs head coach Andy Reid expressed their frustrations at the call, with the Chiefs quarterback claiming that he asked three different referees for an explanation on the penalty but did not receive one.

“Lost for words, man, it’s tough to swallow,” the two-time MVP told the media after the game.

“I’ve played seven years [and] never had offensive offside called. That’s elementary school [stuff] we’re talking about. There was no warning throughout the entire game. Then you wait until there’s a minute left in the game to make a call like that? It’s tough.

“Regardless if we win or lose, just the end of another game and we’re talking about the refs. It’s just not what we want for the NFL and for football.”

However, in Monday’s interview, Mahomes acknowledged the offsides penalty on Toney was correct after he watched replays in the days following the game.

“It was a big play in the game. Obviously, it got negated because of a foul. I didn’t have a great explanation for it, obviously I’m not seeing the view from the sideline or anything like that,” Mahomes said. “I didn’t even really know – I heard the call, from where I was you couldn’t really tell what really happened, and I was trying to get an explanation and didn’t really get one.

“Obviously, I’ve seen it now, and if he didn’t check and they weren’t good, it is a foul. It is something you rarely see called in the NFL. But it was a foul; it’s part of playing the game, man. You learn from it, it’s part of being a person, you learn from your mistakes and try to be better next time.”

Reid also walked back on his criticism of the referees in a press conference on Monday.

“Do we need to line up right? Yeah, we do. We got to take care of that. We can’t put it in the officials’ hands,” Reid told reporters.

Reid added: “Normally, he looks over to the sideline and just gets an OK. On that one, he just happened not to. That’s the coaching point. Just make sure you check with the guy on the side just to see if you’re aligned. I mean, he’s not lining up offsides on purpose. Listen, he was two inches or an inch from being legal. Like I said, you can argue both sides of it.”

The Week 14 defeat continued an indifferent season for the Chiefs who slip to 8-5, with the reigning Super Bowl champions spluttering in their title defense.

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