Mahomes cleared to go Sunday
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was cleared Friday from the league’s concussion protocol after his third consecutive day of practice, allowing the reigning Super Bowl MVP to start Sunday’s AFC championship game against the visiting Buffalo Bills.
Mahomes was hurt in the third quarter of this past Sunday’s win over the Cleveland Browns in the divisional round of the playoffs. He returned to take the majority of snaps in a light workout Wednesday, then did the same during the longest practice of the week Thursday, before team doctors and an independent neurologist gave him the green light after Friday’s drills.
“The week has been a bunch of testing, a bunch of different things to make sure I’m good to go and there’s no lingering effects and things like that,” Mahomes said. “Everything has been good. I went through everything; three or four different doctors have said everything is looking good.”
The dual-threat star was hurt when he was tackled around the head by Browns linebacker Mack Wilson while running a quarterback option. Mahomes did not appear to hit his head on the turf — and if he did, it was not the kind of impact that usually leads to a concussion — raising the possibility he had actually compressed a nerve.
Either way, Mahomes immediately showed the symptoms of a concussion. He remained on the turf for a couple of minutes, then nearly collapsed when he got to his feet. He was still wobbly as trainers helped him to the sideline and into the tent used for examinations, though he looked more steady when he ran into the locker room a few minutes later.
The Chiefs wasted little time ruling Mahomes out, though, and veteran backup Chad Henne and the defense wound up finishing off the 22-17 victory for Kansas City (15-2), which will host the AFC title game for the third straight season.
“We had an option play called we ran a little earlier,” Mahomes recalled Friday, “and I ran out to the right. I got hit. I tried to get up, felt my legs go out and knew that wasn’t a good thing.”
“You want to be out there, but you have to go through the protocol and do everything the right way. You have to look at everything long term as much as short term.” — PATRICK MAHOMES
Still, he had enough wits about him to tell the trainers to let him remain on the turf so Henne would have a chance to warm up “because I knew we were going to go for it on fourth down,” Mahomes said.
Mahomes was second in the NFL with 4,740 passing yards during the regular season, despite sitting out the finale with the Chiefs already assured of the No. 1 seed and a firstround bye. The long layoff between Week 16 and last Sunday wasn’t a problem, either, as Mahomes threw for 255 yards with a touchdown pass and a scoring run before he was hurt.
He has 15 touchdowns, including three on the ground, without an interception in five postseason starts at home.
Now he’ll have the chance to face the second-seeded Bills (15-3), who will bring an eightgame winning streak into Arrowhead Stadium.
“You want to be out there, but you have to go through the protocol and do everything the right way. You have to look at everything long term as much as short term,” said Mahomes, who signed a 10-year contract in the offseason that could pay him close to a half-billion dollars over the course of the deal. “We have the belief there will be no lingering effects and I’ll be able to go out there and be myself and be who I am every single week.”
Bucs: AB won’t play
TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (13-5) bolstered their defense for Sunday’s NFC championship game at Green Bay (14-3), activating nose tackle Vita Vea from the reserve/injured list.
The third-year pro, one of the NFL’s top defenders against the run, has been sidelined since early October with a broken ankle. The 6-foot-4, 347-pound tackle resumed practicing with the team this week and will be available against the top-seeded Packers. Vea has started 29 of 34 games he has appeared in since being drafted 12th overall in 2018.
Coach Bruce Arians also said Friday that receiver Antonio Brown, who had been day to day with a knee injury, will not play in the NFC title game. Brown was hurt during the divisional round last weekend, when the fifth-seeded Bucs upset the New Orleans Saints, who had swept their NFC South regular-season series with Tampa Bay.