It wasn’t until he experienced an unneighborly welcome in the City of Good Neighbors that Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes realized that some people simply don’t like him.
The three-time Super Bowl champion, who is widely viewed as the face of the NFL thanks to the fact that he’s re-writing the league’s record books in realtime, has seen his once pristine perception skew in recent years due solely to the fact that he’s just too good.
He just keeps winning, and non-Kansas City supporters have tired of the schtick. He’s won two NFL MVP Awards in the past six years. The Chiefs have represented the AFC in four out of the last five Super Bowls, winning three of them. It seems as though Kansas City plays in a nationally televised game—often in primetime—in every week of the regular season.
Football fans are simply tired of seeing Mahomes and his team win, this weariness evolving into disdain over time. Perhaps no fanbase has grown more tired of the signal-caller than that of the Buffalo Bills, as Mahomes has stood firmly in the path of the team during its most competitive stretch of the century.
Buffalo has been a perennial contender since the 2019 NFL season, with Josh Allen cementing himself as one of the best signal callers in the league over that stretch. The Bills have deployed one of the league’s most potent offenses and have won 58 regular season games over the past five years… and have not even a single Super Bowl appearance to show for it. The Chiefs have eliminated Buffalo in three out of the past four postseasons, most recently in the 2024 NFL Divisional Round.
And it was at this game—which was played on a chilly January night at Highmark Stadium—that Mahomes first saw proof of his skewing perception. During a recent appearance on the Impaulsive Podcast, the passer spoke about the game, stating that it served as confirmation of his newly-established reputation as a villain.
“This year, definitely, it was a more villain-type role for the whole team,” Mahomes said. “I don’t think I really realized it; I had heard people talking, obviously social media, there are people always talking, so I didn’t know how real it was until I got to Buffalo this year, and I think I saw 40,000 middle fingers on the way into the stadium. [Bills fans] were ready. They were ready to go.
“We go out there and win, I’m trying to hand my headband and sleeve off to a kid, and there are just snowballs flying at me. I’m like, these people really don’t like me. It’s not fake at all. I think they have a great fanbase, we have a healthy respectful rivalry with the Bills. The fanbase, they want to beat us.”
Mahomes’ reign of terror does not appear to be stopping anytime soon; he’s only 28 years of age, head coach Andy Reid is still his play-caller, and Kansas City just bolstered its offense by selecting speedy wide receiver Xavier Worthy in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft.
But every villain needs a hero to oppose them, to overcome adversity and defeat their antagonist when all eyes are on them. For Bills Mafia’s sake, let’s hope it’s that Allen dons the cape and downs Mahomes in a climactic battle in next year’s playoffs.
