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Patrick Mahomes Threw a Tantrum in Last Night’s Chiefs Bills Game

Written by on December 11, 2023

Patrick Mahomes is one of the best quarterbacks in the National Football League, and time and time again he’s demonstrated his ability to lead effectively and stay calm under pressure.

Yesterday, though, was not one of those times.

With less than two minutes to go in the game, it appeared that the Chiefs had scored a potential game-winning touchdown in spectacular fashion. Mahomes had thrown a perfect throw to teammate Travis Kelce, who then, on the same play, threw another perfect lateral pass to teammate Kadarius Toney, who took the ball into the end zone for a touchdown.

There was only one problem: The entire play was called back due to an “offensive offsides” penalty.

After the Chiefs were unable to recover, Mahomes could be seen on the sideline screaming in frustration. He took off his helmet and threw it violently on the ground. His teammates had to hold him back as he turned his attention to the officials, as he continued his tirade.

Mahomes temper tantrum continued after the game as he went to shake hands with his opponent, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. Instead of congratulating Allen on a hard-fought win, microphones caught Mahomes continuing to complain about the referee’s call, using harsh language and a couple of expletives. (This was a harsh contrast to a postgame moment Mahomes shared with Allen last year.)

And Mahomes complaining continued even in the postgame press conference, where he claimed the official’s call-;which most analysts agreed was correct-;had taken away from Kelce’s “legendary career.”

 

All of this is a perfect case study in emotional intelligence, namely, what can happen when you allow your emotions to get the best of you. Let’s talk about why a moment like this can be harmful to you and your team, what you can learn from it, and how it can help you to be a better leader. (If you find value in this lesson, you might be interested in my free emotional intelligence course, which teaches you how to build EQ in yourself and your team.)

 

Why Mahomes’ actions hurt himself and his team

 

Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage emotions, especially in service to a goal.

In the case of last night’s Chiefs Bills game, Mahomes allowed his emotions to get away from him in a way that did not support his goals.

What were those goals, exactly?

The problem with Mahomes’ tantrum, is it doesn’t support any of those goals. In contrast, it causes him to get caught up in things he can’t control and can’t change. And since Mahomes in the leader of the team, he sets the tone for his teammates, possibly causing them to revel in misery rather than focus on what positive actions they could take.

Of course, all of us are guilty of moments like this. All of us get caught up in circumstances that push us over the edge, that cause us to say or do things we later regret. Only, most of us don’t do it with millions of people watching.

Still, there is something to be learned from moments like these, for both Mahomes and us.

 

An emotionally intelligent response

 

When we experience an emotional hijack like this, we can take time afterwards to complete an “emotional postmortem,” to ponder what we could have done differently, and how this action would have better supported our goals.

So, what could Mahomes have done differently?

Even if he lost control of his emotions for a brief time, he could have come back to Allen and said something like this:

“Oh man, you got us this time. Look out for playoff time, though. We’re coming.”

At the press conference, he could have said something like this:

“You know, I’m not even going to talk about that call. It’s over. There’s nothing I can do about it. We’re going to pick up from here and do our absolute best to play great football moving forward.”

And he could have told the guys in the locker room something like this:

“I know guys, I know. But no worries. Let’s focus on the next game. We got this.”

In reality, we have no idea: Maybe Mahomes did say that last part behind closed doors. If he didn’t, he could take advantage of the opportunity to do so today. Doing so would help both himself and his teammates to learn from the past, but focus on the future.

And that’s turning emotional, into emotionally intelligent.

 

By JUSTIN BARISO


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