KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It wasn’t just Kansas City Chiefs fans who were nervous Monday night as quarterback Patrick Mahomes sat on the soggy GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium turf clutching at his left foot and grimacing in pain.
“Everybody was nervous,” running back Kareem Hunt, who rushed for 106 yards and scored the game-winning touchdown against Tampa Bay in overtime, said. “We were hoping he was going to be all right and it wasn’t too serious.”
Fellow running back Samaje Perine had just caught the game-tying 7-yard touchdown on the second play of the fourth quarter, but his mood changed when he realized Mahomes was down.
“I saw when he let it go he didn’t get hit, so that was concerning,” Perine said. “I didn’t want it to be a non-contact (injury).”
That was Mahomes’ immediate concern as well: “Whenever you do something and it’s non-contact, you don’t know exactly what happens and you get that sharp pain, you always fear the worst,” he said.
But it turned out to be nothing more than a re-sprained ankle that needed to be re-taped in the medical tent.
“He’s a competitor,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “I told him I was going to take him out and he about wanted to fight me. So, he’s a tough kid.”
Asked about the moment Mahomes said he was pulling him, Mahomes said, “I thought he was joking. He said it and I was like, ‘C’mon, we’re not doing this again.’ He trusts me. Once the doctors checked it out and I was able to do the drops again, he let me get back on the field.”
Reid did have backup quarterback Carson Wentz on alert.
“I told Carson to be ready to go,” he confirmed.
But Wentz wasn’t needed as Mahomes went 11 for 15 for 102 yards with a touchdown after the injury. He finished the game 34 of 44 overall for 291 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions, snapping a streak of seven straight games with a pick to start the season.
“It was definitely scary,” Mahomes said. “I think it hurt more just because it was the same ankle I rolled last week, so it scared me a little bit. ... You feel the pain and that scares you, because obviously I’ve dealt with ankles before. But I just kind of laid there and, as time went on, the pain subsided.”
The injury happened near the Buccaneers sideline and Mahomes felt better by the time he reached the Chiefs’ sideline. All he needed to do from there was convince Reid to let him stay in the game.
“I wasn’t sure exactly where he was going to be with it, but he might have the loosest ankles in America,” Reid said. “It’s ridiculous how he can come back from those things. Then, he’s mentally tough on top of that.”
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