NBC’s Maria Taylor hits Kansas ‘Sh*tty’ Chiefs with awkward spoonerism

The Kansas City Chiefs weren’t at their best Saturday afternoon, but they weren’t nearly as bad as NBC’s Maria Taylor described.

After the Chiefs gutted out a 27-20 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs on NBC, Taylor began the postgame show with a not so kind assessment of the victor, helped out by a spoonerism.

“Alright, so game one of the divisional round is done, the Kansas sh*tty, City Chiefs, they move on,” Taylor said, accidentally.

The Chiefs may not have looked Super Bowl worthy during their 27-20 win, but they weren’t that bad. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes suffered a high ankle sprain and the Jaguars kicked a field goal late for the backdoor cover to make the game appear even closer than it was. But none of that had to do with why Taylor called them the Kansas “Sh*tty” Chiefs.

Kansas Sh*tty Chiefs. When your brain starts thinking ‘Chiefs’ before saying ‘City,’ I think we can all see how a slip of the tongue is possible. Unfortunately for Taylor, hers was on national TV after a playoff game for the Chiefs. And the gaffe became even more obvious after Taylor caught herself and briefly paused before attempting to correct “sh*tty” with “city.”

But malapropisms can happen, even to the best of broadcasters, and maybe the Chiefs will find a way to use this one to their benefit. Coaches are always desperately looking for manufactured bulletin board material, and as they get set to play the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship game next week, the Chiefs can now lean into a broadcaster calling them “sh*tty” on national television.

[NBC, via Arash Markazi]