It’s Time for Patrick Mahomes’ Family to Chill the Heck Out
Patrick Mahomes has been becoming the face of the NFL over the course of the last few seasons, but there's been a glaring problem festering around him far too long.
His family is really annoying. That's not just my opinion, either. Most NFL fans outside of Kansas City and a segment within Kansas City find the people associated with Mahomes to be...abrasive, to put it nicely.
I don't know these people personally, but nobody likes them. It's not just his TikTok famous brother either. It seems like as many articles are written postgame about fiancee Brittany Matthews, younger brother Jackson, and mother Randi as are written weekly about the former Super Bowl MVP.
There was the now-infamous water bottle toss after the Chiefs' loss to the Baltimore Ravens. If you hadn't seen that one, here's a short clip, along with the response from Patrick Mahomes in a press conference where he should be focused on the team instead of needing to defend his family members.
I do agree with Mahomes that Brittany and Jackson receive a lot of hate, but it's absolutely brought on by past actions. There might have been some things said to Jackson off-video to make him throw water, but what was he saying the entire game? Was he TikToking his way around the suite and flaunting the Chiefs' success in the faces of the Ravens below? Yes, he was.
To me, it's a classic case of if you dish it out, you better be prepared to take it.
Now, I will defend the family a bit for a second here, because most of the tweets and comments that get picked up by NFL Twitter and writers are normal stuff said by every fan or quarterback mom and blown way out of proportion because of who they are.
Here's this from Sunday after a Tyreek Hill volleyball set yet another Mahomes interception into the hands of the defense. Mahomes' mom had the thoughtful suggestion to make that a fumble and not an interception:
The post received more comments than likes, which is referred to as being ratioed on Twitter. It also spawned blogs and commentary from numerous sources. I'm sure Mahomes will be asked if he thinks his tip drill interceptions should actually be fumbles this week, and he'll reply graciously and humbly as he does.
Another distraction for him to deal with.
It's the same with Brittany Matthews, Mahomes' fiancee and mother to his child. Her tweets get way more traction than they should. To be fair here, I think Matthews has calmed down immensely in the last two years after reaching an absolute peak level of annoying during the Chiefs' Super Bowl run. She mostly sticks to Instagram stories during games that come and go, and mostly it's harmless videos of her cheering on her husband.
She tweets like any normal fan, though. Do people hate her tweets? I think she's just been a polarizing figure in the past and built the reputation up as someone whose tweets you want to hate.
That brings me to Jackson Mahomes, who had to give this apology this weekend after doing one of his TikTok dances on top of the number 21 painted on the sideline in honor of the late Sean Taylor, who was being celebrated during the game.
Now, here's the TikTok in question, which has been deleted from Jackson's feed, but not before it was dueted by hundreds of Washington Football Team fans:
This fiasco is definitely on Mahomes for not having even a shred of awareness, but the younger brother is actually telling the truth here. The Washington Football team did, in fact, direct Chiefs' friends and family who had sideline passes to stand inside a roped-off area that included Sean Taylor's number 21. Did Jackson get any benefit of the doubt?
Hell no, and he hasn't earned any goodwill from any fanbase. He's spent every waking minute of the last three seasons screaming in everybody's face about how his brother and his brother's team are better than you and your team.
While that statement might have some truth to it, the way he's handled his business in the past led to him being mercilessly tried in the public court of opinion as a scumbag for dancing on Sean Taylor's number. He might have been directed to stand inside the chain, but nobody told him to wiggle around on top of the number being retired at the game.
It's an incredibly bad look that's 100 percent reflected on Patrick, deserved or not.
It would honestly be better for everyone involved here for the Mahomes Family just to take a social media sabbatical on gameday for the rest of the season. Give everyone a break from the insufferableness of it all.