All week long, it was obvious the Kansas City Chiefs took issue with the Cincinnati Bengals’ trash talk leading up to the AFC title game. As Sunday neared, Chiefs’ First-Team All-Pro Chris Jones took particular exception to the “Burrowhead” nickname for Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium instilled by the Bengals’ Mike Hilton.
Boy did Jones back his feelings up.
After a prolific all-time performance to help send the Chiefs to Super Bowl 57 — where Jones amassed five QB hits, four tackles, three tackles-for-loss, and two sacks — the star defensive lineman was interviewed after the game.
From the jump, it was clear Jones used the Bengals’ words as motivation for a legendary performance:
“Don’t you ever, ever, ever, and I’m going to look right into the camera when I say this, disrespect Arrowhead.” – Chris Jones@StoneColdJones went off!!!!! pic.twitter.com/d0yXTATBsj
— James Palmer (@JamesPalmerTV) January 30, 2023
I’m not sure if I’m watching a WWE wrestler provide a stump speech for a match later that night or a dominant defensive tackle pour his heart out. In the pregame, there was discussion that Jones was disappointing with his output in the Chiefs’ AFC title game loss last year after recording zero impact plays in the backfield. So, I’ll go with the latter “pour his heart out” sentiment here.
Let’s rewind the key segment of Jones’ spiteful message to the Bengals:
“Let me tell y’all something, man,” Jones started. “Don’t you ever, ever, EVER, and I’m going to look right into the camera when I say this, disrespect Arrowhead. I don’t care how many times you beat us. Don’t ever disrespect Arrowhead.”
Phew. With his team notching a third berth in the Super Bowl in the last four years and Jones enjoying a career game (and season), it looks like he got the deserved last laugh.