Just before halftime of the Chiefs’ eventual Week Three loss to the Colts, CBS’ cameras caught quarterback Patrick Mahomes in an animated discussion with offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.
Mahomes wanted to keep running plays to try and get more points. Kansas City’s coaches had decided to take a knee and go back to the locker room.
Mahomes has addressed the situation by calling it a “little disagreement,” noting that it’s become a bigger deal to fans and media than it was internally.
Bieniemy had his weekly press conference on Thursday and faced a few questions about the situation. Ultimately, he had the same conclusion — there really wasn’t a significant issue.
“Here’s what I love about Pat: [he] is a competitor,” Bieniemy said, via John Dixon of ArrowheadPride.com. “You guys have heard what I’ve said in the past about him. You want him that way. That’s how you want [your quarterback]. You want to finish every drive in the end zone with a score.
“At that particular time, as a staff we decided, ‘You know what? We’re getting the ball to start the second half off, so we just want to take a knee.’ So obviously, Pat, being the competitor that he is, wasn’t ready to hear that.”
Bieniemy added he was “just trying to calm the storm” and that, “if it had been a true eruption, I think you guys would have recognized it.”
“One thing you guys gotta notice about me: I have no problem with players getting emotional and feeling how they feel, OK?” Bieniemy said. “I embrace that. I embrace the energy and emotion that they bring, because the thing that you don’t want to do is take that away.”
That is part of why whatever happened between Mahomes and Bieniemy, both men seem well past it.
“So the exchange that we had?” he asked. “Who cares? It really doesn’t matter. Because when it’s all said and done with, we’re going to talk a minute or two later and talk about exactly what we need to do. So there is no personal issue. You just keep it moving forward.”