Shortly after the Kansas City Chiefs suffered a 40-22 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX in February, Chiefs defensive end Charles Omenihu warned that quarterback Patrick Mahomes would go “on a revenge tour” this coming fall.
During a Monday appearance on the FanDuel TV “Up & Adams” program, Mahomes poured some cold water over Omenihu’s take.
“I’m honestly just ready to play football again,” Mahomes explained, as shared by Nick Shook of the NFL’s website. “Whenever you lose, you kind of have this taste in your mouth that you want to go out there and revenge that or whatever you want to say. At the same time, I feel like I’ve had to sit back and just listen to people talk and talk, and I’m like, ‘Let’s just play football and just handle it all out there.’ I don’t really want to talk about it. I just want to go out and show who we are as the Kansas City Chiefs.”
Individuals associated with the Chiefs, such as Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce, weren’t shy about making it known they wanted to help Kansas City become the first team in NFL history to three-peat as Super Bowl champions. The Chiefs won 15 of their first 16 games last season before they rested starters in Week 18, and they then held serve at home during the AFC portion of the postseason tournament.
However, the Eagles thoroughly dominated Mahomes and Co. en route to building a 34-0 lead on Super Bowl Sunday. Mahomes tossed two interceptions, one of which was returned for a score, in the blowout defeat.
That said, the Chiefs are expected to once again pursue a fourth title since February 2020. As of Tuesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had Kansas City fourth among the betting favorites at +800 odds to win Super Bowl LX.
“I think it’s just us having fun again,” Mahomes said about bouncing back from the matchup versus Philadelphia he’d probably prefer to forget. “It’s always been fun playing on the Kansas City Chiefs. That’s what makes it special. I feel like last year, I don’t want to say it was pressure, but guys wanted to go out there and win every single week, not for the fun of the game, but just because we’re supposed to. Let’s go out there and have fun. The wins will come if we play the way we know we can play. We have the talent. We have the coaches. We work harder than anyone in the NFL. So let’s go out there and have fun and let the results handle themselves.”
Analysts such as John Kosko of Pro Football Focus still view Mahomes as the best player at the sport’s most important position despite what happened at Caesars Superdome back in February. If Mahomes and the Chiefs get back to “having fun again,” beginning with the Week 1 game against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sept. 5, Kansas City could once again enter the playoffs as the AFC’s No. 1 seed.
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