Counter: Patrick Mahomes' On-Field Trash Talk Is Robotic, And His Offhand Bengals Remark Is Getting Blown Out Of Proportion

Still need to check out this Quarterback Netflix documentary in full, but of what little I've seen, it looks awesome. 

And let me be clear before Chiefs Nation jumps down my throat for the umpteenth time due to the premise of this headline. Patrick Mahomes is the best quarterback in the world. Maybe ever. Coming from a Bengals fan. I also think he comes across as a really good dude who has to put up with an embarrassing, shithead brother. Mahomes has handled the spotlight, scrutiny and annual Super Bowl or bust expectations as well as one possibly could.

Couldn't help but notice that Mahomes' brand of trash talk as depicted in aforementioned Netflix documentary, though, is just a series of repeated phrases. Reags seemed to think it earned him a new level of respect.

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh.

To recap the alleged S Tier/all-world shit talking Mahomes did to Raiders pass-rusher Maxx Crosby, it went as follows:

"I'm here all day. I'm here all day. I'm here all day. I'm here all day. I'm here all day. I'm here all day."

Followed by:

"You woke up the wrong motherfucker. You woke up the wrong motherfucker. You woke up the wrong motherfucker. You woke up the wrong motherfucker."

…Then finally…

"I'm here! I'm here! I'm here! I'm here!"

Now to be fair to Mahomes, he says in the clip how he tends to black out in these highly competitive situations and doesn't even realize what he's saying. I find that more hilarious than intimidating or commanding an extra level of respect. I don't know if I could possibly respect a quarterback more than Patrick Mahomes. He's the capital-T Truth at football. Anyone who argues differently or believes he's propped up by Andy Reid is a loser.

…But now to the Bengals' angle of this. Mahomes and Travis Kelce have made a point to get annoyed by non-smack talk smack talk that Cincinnati players have thrown out into the media. It used to annoy me but I'm starting to get less annoyed by the day, because football season is damn near here at long last. As Joe Burrow said, it will be settled on the field on New Year's Eve.

The only problem is, everyone on NFL Twitter is running with this little itty bitty quote by Mahomes and taking it out of context:

Here's what Mahomes actually said in full about who he wanted to face in the AFC Championship Game:

"I think we match up better with the Bills, but I want to play the Bengals. I mean just honestly. (laughs) […] I want to play them because we haven't beaten them and I'm tired of them talking about it."

See? A couple extra words there! Don't let that stop anybody for viral engagement, though. The inaccurate implication being bandied about is that Mahomes was tired of the Bengals talking shit in general. He was actually just mad that he'd gone 0-3 against Cincinnati and that some of the players were gloating about that fact. "Tired of them talking about it" meaning "tired of the Bengals pointing out that we haven't beaten them."

All the other nonsense is just noise. I guess it's cool that it happens because I get to cover it and call it out. On the other hand, it's all a little weird. On the other hand, it also makes me chuckle at the Chiefs and their fans, who should be a lot more chill considering they have two recent Super Bowl victories.

If anything from this Netflix doc is worthy of a newfound respect for Mahomes, it's his mindset about an AFC championship rematch. He'd had lost three times in a row to this pesky Bengals team who everyone thought was going to regress in 2022. Instead of hoping to duck them, the competitor in Mahomes wanted to beat their ass.

Thanks to Cincinnati being down three offensive line starters — hey, Mahomes brought it up, not me!!! — and a boneheaded late penalty by Joseph Ossai, Kansas City won by three points. Ossai might not've been in the game if not for Trey Hendrickson playing through a broken wrist and Sam Hubbard dealing with a torn calf. Alas. Maybe Mahomes wouldn't have passed quite as well if the Bengals had their CB1 Chidobe Awuzie in action, too.

I'm just trolling bringing up the Bengals' injuries. Tyler Boyd also missed most of that game. OK I'm done. I'm sure the Chiefs had some (?) injuries as well. Mahomes looks like he's limping and gimping around half the time anyway.

Time to put this out into the universe: The next Bengals-adjacent blog I write needs to be Joe Burrow's extension. Who Dey Nation needs it. And why don't we get Tee Higgins and Logan Wilson done while we're at it.

Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok