The Kansas City Chiefs remained the NFL’s only unbeaten team after knocking off the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in overtime on Monday night. Unfortunately, the team didn’t come out of the game unscathed. Star quarterback Patrick Mahomes entered the game with a nagging ankle injury.
Mahomes went down in the second half with a non-contact injury to the same ankle after throwing a touchdown pass. Mahomes had been dealing with a nagging injury to the angle throughout the week, per the team’s practice report.
Ultimately, Mahomes was able to return to the game, and he spoke afterward about the scary moment.
“Definitely scary,” Mahomes said, according to Pro Football Talk.
“I think it hurt more, just because it’s the same ankle I rolled last week, so it scared me a little bit, but once I took a breath and calmed down a little bit, it ended up not being too bad. We went in there, got a re-spat and went back on the football field.”
Mahomes went on to explain that he overruled the coaching and training staff to get back in the game, which is a brutal look for a league that is trying to emphasize player safety.
“I was trying to run off the field and they were telling me not to. It’s just kind of the football mentality,” Mahomes said.
While Mahomes is one of the sport’s biggest stars, the league has to do a better job of protecting players from themselves. Otherwise, it risks Mahomes’ and star players’ careers being cut short before they can accomplish everything they’ve worked their entire lives for.
