Jets’ Sauce Gardner takes exception to Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes’ comment on penalty
The play unfolded in plain view of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and he knew a flag would be thrown.
And so, Mahomes threw the ball in the area where Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner had grabbed Chiefs wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling. New York cornerback Michael Carter intercepted the pass and the Jets thought momentum had turned back in their favor in the fourth quarter of Sunday night’s game.
Instead, a flag was thrown and Gardner was called for defensive holding.
Mahomes broke down the play Monday during his weekly visit to KCSP (610 AM).
“Yeah, I was looking at him, and I mean at the end of the day, you get your hands around the guy’s neck, like 15 yards downfield, they’re gonna call something, if it’s gonna be holding or illegal contact, it’s just not allowed,” Mahomes said. “So once I saw him grab him, I threw it up there to give Marquez a chance, kind of knowing that the flag was gonna come. So I mean you can see it from my position and I mean understand people want to let teams play and stuff like that, but you can’t get your hands around guys’ necks like that.”
What was a third-and-20 play at the Jets’ 40-yard line became a first down for the Chiefs, who got three more first downs and ran out the clock on their 23-20 victory.
Gardner took exception to Mahomes’ comment, which was shared on X (née Twitter).
“Since we are commenting, let me say it from my perspective,” Gardner wrote on X. “For starters, this was around 5-7 yds from the LOS... not 15. 2. I extended my arms and he made the choice to lean on me with all of his weight which caused my hand to slide to the back of his pad; not his neck I did not grab him, I actually made a conscious effort to remove my right arm as you can see in the video he then tried to swim with his right hand and I pushed his arm down with my left hand lmaoo.. There yall have it. It was not a holding or illegal contact. Ohh my fault, it was holding bc he threw the flag.”
Gardner included a clip of the play and you can decide for yourself if that explanation of what happened is true.
Gardner deleted another X post about the game, this one saying he wouldn’t have been penalized if he was a fan of Taylor Swift.
