Patrick Mahomes has issued a rallying cry to Kansas City Chiefs fans ahead of their pivotal showdown with the Buffalo Bills at Arrowhead.
The Bills are standing in the Chiefs’ way of a third straight Super Bowl appearance this weekend, with the two teams set to battle it out in Sunday’s all-important AFC Championship game.
It promises to be an epic encounter in Kansas City, where Mahomes will look to move to 4-0 in playoff matchups against great rival Josh Allen.
The stakes are high for both teams as Allen and the Bills look to avenge last season’s Divisional round loss and secure Buffalo’s first trip to the Super Bowl since 1993, while the Chiefs will aim to move one step closer to an unprecedented three-peat.
And just a few days out from Sunday’s championship game, Mahomes has called on the home crowd to be louder than ever before when Allen and Co come to town.
‘Chiefs Kingdom, they’re always passionate they’re always loud,’ the quarterback told reporters on Thursday, via Sports Illustrated’s Jordan Foote.
Patrick Mahomes has called on Chiefs fans to be louder than ever before against the Bills
Mahomes is set to lock horns with great rival Josh Allen in Sunday’s AFC Championship game
‘I would just say, let’s see them take it up a notch. Let’s see how loud this place can really get.’
Mahomes and the Chiefs have not lost in the NFL playoffs since their defeat to the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2021 AFC Championship game at Arrowhead.
Three years later the Bills will be looking to emulate the Bengals in Kansas City and bring that historic run to an end, though many believe they will have to play out of their skin to do so amid controversy over recent officiating calls in the Chiefs’ favor.
Fans were left seething when the back-to-back Super Bowl champions benefited from two highly-controversial decisions in Saturday’s Divisional playoff win over the Houston Texans, both of which involved Mahomes.
The Texans were penalized for what many felt were very soft fouls on him during their 23-14 victory, with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy branding one of them a ‘disgrace’.
ESPN commentator Troy Aikman also said he ‘couldn’t disagree more’ with an unnecessary roughing call on Mahomes during the third quarter.
Yet amid accusations of games being ‘rigged’ in their favor, Mahomes has dismissed the idea that referees are giving his team extra protection.
‘I don’t feel that way,’ he said in a press conference Wednesday. ‘I just try to play football at the end of the day. The referees are doing their best to call the game as fair and as proper as they can and all you can do is go out there and play the game you love as hard as you can and live with the results.
‘So for me, it’s to go out there, play hard, try to do whatever I can to win the football game and then live with the results based off my effort and the way that we played the game. So I think that’s what we preach here in Kansas City.’
