The Kansas City Chiefs faced the Cincinnati Bengals on January 29, 2023. The winner of the highly anticipated game would head to Arizona for the Super Bowl. The AFC Championship game took place under the lights at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Leading up to the game there was a wide range of trash talk.
In the Cincinnati Bengals previous three games against the Kansas City Chiefs they went 3-0. The Bengals appeared to be the team to beat. The Bengals were not afraid to share that with the opposing side. The trash talk began as soon as the Bengals defeated the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round of the playoffs. The chatter from the Bengals set the tone for the upcoming AFC Championship game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs.
The story between the two teams from the American Football Conference goes back to the 2021-2022 season. In the 2022 AFC Championship, the Cincinnati Bengals defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 in overtime. The Chiefs were leading 21-10 at halftime. The seven-point favorite Chiefs suffered a devastating home playoff loss. Patrick Mahomes spoke about his performance after the game.
Goldman, Charles. “Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Shoulders Blame for AFC Championship Game Loss to Bengals.” Chiefs Wire, 31 Jan. 2022
Mahomes, post-game comments, “I’ve got to be better,” Later on Mahomes would say, “When you’re up 21-3 at one point in the game, you can’t lose it. I put that on myself.”
Patrick Mahomes took responsibility for the Kansas City Chiefs’ loss against the Bengals in the 2022 AFC Championship. The Chiefs would use that loss as motivation for the next season.
“We’ll go back and look at all the things we did well, the adversity we battled through, the better team that we became toward the end of the season. And we’ll try to learn from the mistakes that we made and try to be better next year, said Mahomes.
The Bengals and Chiefs would meet again in the regular season of 2022-23 season. The result was in favor of the Bengals once again, with a final score of 27-24. The Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs had lots of motivation heading into their fourth matchup against the Joe Burrow-led Bengals, after going 0-3 in their previous matchups. The Bengals would add to that motivation.
Cornerback, Michael Hilton Jr. commented on the Chiefs after the Bengals win in the divisional round against the Bills. “We’ll see y’all in Burrowhead” (sportingnews.com).
The comment became a big topic around the game. Chiefs players were asked about Michael Hilton Jr.’s comments.
Chiefs Tight End Travis Kelce spoke on his podcast New Heights with his brother Jason. “I don’t know, I don’t know. Maybe we’re gonna have to break it this week because a lot of Cincinnati Bengals fans are calling it ‘Burrowhead’ instead of Arrowhead. They’re throwing a lot of bulletin board material out there” (cbssports.com).
The Kansas Chiefs were not fans of the trash talk about Arrowhead Stadium. The only way the Chiefs could stop the talk was by winning the game Sunday night in Arrowhead. The trash talk wasn’t only coming from the players of the Bengals. The Cincinnati Mayor had something to say.
“Whereas Joseph Lee Burrow, who’s 3-0 against Mahomes, has been asked by officials to take a paternity test to confirm whether or not he’s his father,” Cincinnati Mayor, Aftab Pureval. (sportingnews.com).
What the Bengals didn’t know is that this trash talk would come back to hurt them. On Sunday, January 29, 2023, Patrick Mahomes led a beat-up Chiefs team to a win. A win that will go down in Mahomes’ career as a defining moment. Patrick Mahomes fought through a high ankle sprain. The winning play came from Mahomes as he ran for a first down on third and four. Mahomes would be hit late out of bounds for a penalty, resulting in an additional fifteen yards. The crucial penalty would set up Harrison Butker for the game-winning field goal. The final score was 23-20. The Kansas City Chiefs punched their ticket to a third Super Bowl in five years.
Travis Kelce had a little something to say to the Cincinnati Mayor after the game. “Know your role and shut your mouth, you jabroni!” (sportingnews.com).
The comments were heard throughout the sports world. After the Mayor, Aftab Pureval, made those comments about Mahomes many were unhappy. Some thought it was unprofessional and a careless act by the Mayor of Cincinnati. The Chiefs were not afraid to talk back. Mahomes had something to say after the game.
“Yeah I mean you got ‘Burrowhead.’ I mean, they beat us last time, they were talking about we gotta play them. There was a lot of stuff. I mean, the mayor came at me, man. I understand he’s the mayor of Cincinnati so he has to think about something,” (outsider.com).
Mahomes seemed to use the comments that were thrown at him as motivation. Patrick Mahomes threw for 326 yards, completed 29-43 passes and had two touchdown passes, all while dealing with a high ankle sprain.
Post-game comment from Mahomes, “You just gotta play the football game and then let your play do the talking.”
Patrick showed the Bengals up. No longer giving Arrowhead the name “Burrowhead.”
The matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals seems to be a matchup for years to come. The Bengals were all talk heading into their game against Kansas City. With them being 3-0 in previous matchups they thought they had the Chiefs number. Turns out the Kansas City Chiefs have Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes put the Chiefs on his back and took them to victory. Mahomes without his top three receivers showed he is still the man to beat in the AFC. All week leading up to the highly anticipated matchup the Chiefs stayed quiet, unlike the Cincinnati Bengals. With the result not being in the Bengals favor, they might not want to talk bad about the Kansas City Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes, or Arrowhead Stadium. The Bengals learned their lesson, don’t talk before the result. The Kansas City Chiefs are now on their way to Arizona to face the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII.