Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes getting picked up on a hot mic asking referees to give him a heads-up about a defender’s position would fit very nicely into the narrative that he gets preferential treatment and that the league is fixed.
As with most conspiracy theories, it’s never quite as obvious as people want it to be.
A few minutes into Sunday’s Chiefs game against the Denver Broncos, Mahomes took off toward the sideline on a scamper before being tackled by safety Brandon Jones. After a flag was thrown, cameras showed the referee signaling for a false start on right tackle Jawaan Taylor, negating the gain.
While the referees signaled the penalty, Mahomes was picked up by a mic asking “Can you let me know if he’s close? Tell me, tell me.”
A lot of people, including CBS analyst Trent Green, assumed that the NFL MVP was asking the ref to let him know when a defender was getting close, setting off alarm bells that we had just witnessed the smoking gun that proved the league was rigged.
It’s pretty easy to get people to believe anything these days, especially when you strip away context.
In reality, Mahomes was almost certainly asking the referee to give him a heads-up if his lineman was close to being offside, which is something that does get communicated from time to time.
That was former Chiefs offensive lineman Mitchell Schwartz’s read on the situation.
It’s also entirely possible Mahomes was asking that of someone on the Chiefs sideline and not the referee, as his line of vision isn’t entirely clear from the clip.
Of course, that explanation probably isn’t going to satisfy conspiracy theorists out there. Then again, nothing probably would.
He was taking about the right tackle lining up on line of scrimmage you buffoon
— Vince Hamilton (@VincentHamilton) November 10, 2024
[Kansas City Star, Mitchell Schwartz]