Chiefs WR Justin Watson’s mom reminded him of previous unsportsmanlike penalty after TD in Vegas

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A mom never forgets as Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Justin Watson found out after getting flagged for a personal foul last Sunday in a win at the Las Vegas Raiders.

“I called my mom right after the game and (she reminded me) that was the first unsportsmanlike penalty I’ve had since the first year I played football in the fourth grade,” Watson said. “Out of character a little bit for me.”

Back then, a 9-year-old Watson was flagged for friendly fire.

“We were losing; we were getting beat up,” Watson said. “We were playing on a baseball field and I played running back, so I was getting tackled into the infield dirt. We got stopped on fourth down and somebody was roughing on the pile and I turned and threw an elbow.”

It wasn’t even at an opponent.

“When I turned around, it was my own teammate, so I actually got a penalty for throwing an elbow at my own teammate in the fourth grade,” Watson said.

The target of Watson’s ire Sunday was Raiders linebacker Robert Spillane, who had flattened him as tried to run a crossing route across the back of the Allegiant Stadium end zone.

A mere 1.5 seconds after the snap, Watson found himself flat on his back in the end zone after a hit from Spillane, who was shuffling wide in zone coverage.

“I saw him coming,” Watson said. “I was trying to look the safety off a little bit and I was going to wrap right behind. I thought against that coverage, as soon as I got past Spillane, I was going to catch a touchdown.”

He’d lined up behind Travis Kelce in an offset slot stack to the left side of the formation, cutting behind the All-Pro tight end at the snap.

As he shuffled outside to mirror Isiah Pacheco’s route before settling into a zone at the goal line, Spillane leveled Watson with a shoulder-to-shoulder hit that knocked him off his feet and flying four yards into the end zone.

“Spillane hit him pretty good there, knocked him off his feet,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said.

Watson was supposed to carry the route across the back of the end zone.

Instead, Watson rolled to his knees, popped back up, settled into an open spot between Spillane and cornerback Nate Hobbs, and Patrick Mahomes put a 3-yard dart on his chest for the game-tying touchdown.

“As I was scanning back to the left, I saw him getting back up and I was like, ‘If you get back up you’re going to be wide open for a touchdown,’” Mahomes said. “It speaks to him though, getting hit like that and being able to bounce back up and get the touchdown, you just have to keep fighting to the end.”

An animated Watson then aggressively stepped toward Spillane and let him know he hadn’t stayed down and, in fact, had scored before Mahomes ran to the end zone — half to celebrate with Watson and half to separate him from Spillane.

“Heat of the moment — we got down two scores, fighting to come back — and, especially those first two drives we scored on, we were scratching and clawing,” Watson said. “I think I got caught up in the moment a little bit.”

Watson drew a personal foul for taunting. The 15 yards were marked off on the ensuing kickoff.

“I love to see the fire in the guys,” Reid said. “I can’t stand the penalties right now, but the fire, I can see why he did what he did, yeah. That was a pretty rough hit that he took there. He’s a tough kid and, for him to bounce up like he did and then score, he didn’t flinch a lick on that. I’m good, but I’m not good.”

Watson thanked the kickoff team for making sure the 15-yard penalty didn’t give the Raiders a shot at a last-second field goal or worse going into halftime.

“When I got popped, I knew that Pat was looking for me already, so I had to get up and get open again,” Watson said. “It was definitely a good shot on the hit. I was supposed to be on the total other side of the field, kind of like the same play we scored against the Eagles on. But when I got hit, as soon as I got up, you just find the quarterback.”

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