The biggest lesson from the old tale of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" is to never issue false alarms when actual threats exist. While Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs have every right to be frustrated about spotty officiating in their 20-17 loss to the Bills on Sunday, blaming the NFL's zebras is merely a copout that detracts from the real issues that've haunted Kansas City all season.
Kadarius Toney's offsides penalty -- which happened to wipe out a potential go-ahead touchdown drive for Kansas City with less than two minutes left -- was entirely warranted, as he had one foot in front of the line of scrimmage. Maybe it had a small impact on the thrilling and chaotic play itself, but, rules are rules. The Chiefs aren't entitled to special treatment -- or a warning about Toney's faulty positioning -- because they're the NFL's reigning champions.
If the Chiefs took such objection, perhaps they should’ve scored more than 17 points, so the game didn't come down to a critical last-minute possession. They had ample opportunities to destroy a vulnerable Bills team that entered the game at 6-6, with just one win on the road. Instead, the persisting issues for Kansas City were on display once again. Mahomes tossed an interception on their first possession. They trailed 14-0. They committed seven penalties.
Rather than congratulating the Bills and acknowledging he simply should've played better, Mahomes was so upset with how a single penalty swayed the game, he didn't even have the decency to shake hands with Bills quarterback Josh Allen. Apparently it was a much easier cop out for Mahomes to take out his frustrations during their postgame interaction. "Worst f---ing call I’ve ever seen," Mahomes was caught saying as he exchanged an embrace with Allen. "Offensive offsides... f---ing terrible."
Regardless of how a player feels about his performance, winning and losing with grace is a baseline standard for good sportsmanship. The embarrassing display put forth by Mahomes, which leaked into his press conference after the game, is emblematic of the team's low morality and perceived sense of superiority. It's all fun and games when the reigning champions are winning and golden boy Travis Kelce is appearing in every other TV commercial with Taylor Swift cheering him on in the press box. With the Chiefs struggling to live up to lofty expectations this year, the circus act looks more like a clown show than a Hollywood movie.
From Swift, to Kelce, to Mahomes' irritating TikTok-dancing brother Jackson, the Chiefs have now become the easiest team to hate. When they’re winning enough to back up the talk, it’s almost okay. However, the tiresome sore loser act makes them look dumber than the whining boy in Aesop's fable. Excluded from the gripes by Kansas City was recognition that they've benefitted from a number of calls -- and non-calls -- by NFL officials. It's not like the yellow flag thrown for offensive offsides was appalling, or anything like that. Since it was somewhat ticky-tacky and negatively impacted the almighty Chiefs, NFL fans felt conditioned to sympathize with them.
Only, that logic is faulty. There are several talented squads atop the AFC, with records that aren't indicative of their true potential. Getting back to the Super Bowl was already going to be difficult enough, and this year's Chiefs team felt they could win big despite having less talent. One by one, the Chiefs brushed off the departures of impact contributors Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins, Mitchell Schwartz, and Damien Williams, and still took home the Lombardi Trophy last year. Now, the franchise is starting to see how challenging it is to restock the cabinet with top-notch talent.
Mahomes is a generational quarterback, but he isn't Superman. As evidenced by Kelce, a tight end, being the Chiefs' leading receiver, Mahomes isn't really throwing to top-notch targets. Rashee Rice has had a solid rookie campaign, and Justin Watson and Marquez Valdes-Scantling are capable as secondary guys. But the team doesn't exactly have a No. 1 wideout like Hill. This notion Kansas City can replace terrific players seeking high paydays with low-cost players contributes to their cockiness. It's another way of indirectly saying, "the rules don't apply to us because we're the Chiefs."
Kansas City went 24 years without advancing past the AFC's divisional round before a Dee Ford offsides penalty robbed them of a conference title back in 2019. Naturally, they won it all the following year. From that point forward, the Chiefs felt glued to the king's throne, as if nothing could possibly push them off of it. Sunday's display of childish behavior was just the latest instance of the boy hollering over nothing, when the wolf was thousands of miles away.