On Saturday, news emerged that the NFL fined Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes $50,000 for his reaction to the offensive offside call against Chiefs receiver Kadarius Toney late in last week’s loss to the Bills. On Sunday, Mahomes was asked whether he’ll appeal the fine.
“I honestly don’t even know how that process works,” Mahomes told PFT by phone after Sunday’s win over the Patriots. “I think it’s the first time I’ve ever been fined. But I know mentally I’m just gonna move on and play. Now that the game’s over and I have an extra day, I’ll figure out how that process goes.”
There’s a good chance he’ll pay the fine and move on, given that he has fully owned his behavior.
“I knew that I let my emotions get the best of me,” Mahomes said. “As a man and as a person, you have to deal with the consequences of your actions. And that’s how I was always taught growing up. And I knew that something was coming. I didn’t know what it was going to be and then the fine came and all I can do now is move on and become a better person about it and not let that scenario happen again.”
I asked him whether the strong reaction to the Toney penalty might have been the culmination of a season’s worth of frustrations,
“I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, honestly, I think it’s just an emotional game. I think people have seen my competitive fire in good ways. They’ve seen me and Maxx Crosby on Quarterback and how competitive I am, or they’ve seen me running and celebrating and I think just they saw that my emotions popped in a bad way. And I have to be better at that. I have to be able to control my emotions in adverse situations. And if I don’t and that happens, you have consequences that come with it. So, all I can do now is just become a better person for it. I mean, that’s how you have to deal with life and in this world is if you make a decision that you regret, all you can do is learn from that and try not to make that decision again.”
It’s a great lesson, even if it’s an expensive one for Mahomes.
Then again, $50,000 is nothing to him. Given his football salary and off-field earnings, it’s barely a drop in a very large bucket.
