Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes appeared to suffer an ankle injury on a touchdown flip to running back Samaje Perine during the fourth quarter of Monday’s 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Seemingly everyone, from Chiefs coach Andy Reid to Mahomes’s teammates to Chiefs fans, held their breath as they saw the three-time Super Bowl MVP on the turf in pain and needing to be helped off the field by the training staff.
But Mahomes jogged back onto the field, and eventually helped lead the Chiefs to an overtime win to remain undefeated. After the game, Reid, when asked about the injury, told reporters he couldn’t believe the star QB was able to return so quickly, adding a perfect one-liner about Mahomes’s ankles in the process.
“When he was being carried off, that wasn’t too easy … I wasn’t sure exactly where he was going to be with it,” Reid said. “He might have the loosest ankles in America. I mean, it’s ridiculous how he can come back from those things. And then he’s mentally tough on top of that.”
Reid went on to explain that he told Mahomes he was going to remove him from the game—and the Chiefs QB was not having it.
“He’s a competitor,” Reid said. “I told him I was going to take him out and he wanted to fight me. He’s a tough kid.”
Mahomes told reporters he thought Reid was joking when the coach approached him about removing him from a tie game in the fourth quarter.
Patrick Mahomes talks about his ankle. He says that once he started walking it started to feel better.
He adds that when Andy Reid told him he was coming out, Mahomes thought he was joking. 😂 pic.twitter.com/8kjgWKEWoq
— Sports Radio 810 WHB (@SportsRadio810) November 5, 2024
Reid declined to draw any similarities between this ankle injury and the one suffered by Mahomes in a 2023 playoff game, and told reporters he would update the status of his QB come Tuesday. Mahomes, for his part, told ESPN’s Lisa Salters that he would be ready for the team’s Week 10 game vs. the Denver Broncos.
Reid, Mahomes and the Chiefs, back-to-back defending Super Bowl champions, own the NFL’s best record at 8-0.
