The Chiefs are said to have not forgotten about the Kermit Mahomes puppet that showed up at Raiders training camp. We explain what’s behind it.
It’s game day in Las Vegas with the Chiefs in town. It’s the first game between the Raiders and Chiefs this season. And the Chiefs have plenty of motivation considering they are facing the last team to beat them. And they did it on Christmas Day last year.
But apparently that’s not enough. No, as predicted the undefeated reigning Super Bowl champs are using this stupid, media manufactured controversy as some form of extra motivation when facing the Raiders today.
Some of you may not follow these things as closely as we do, so for those of you with lives outside of football in the offseason, let’s go back and see how this came about.
Back in late July, when the Raiders were in training camp in Costa Mesa, they had some bleachers set up and were allowing a few fans to attend each day. One of the fans brought a goofy Kermit the Frog puppet and put a little Mahomes jersey on it with a curly wig.
Then, after practice, when some of the players came to the side to sign autographs, he tossed it to rookie Trey Taylor, who understandably thought it was hilarious and proceeded to pick it up and put it on his hand and play with it.
Everyone had a good laugh, and another fan caught it on his camera and tweeted it out.
Keep in mind, the Mahomes Kermit stuff goes way back. His voice sounds like Kermit. It’s no secret. Everyone has fun with it, including Mahomes himself who was asked about it on Super Bowl media day back in February.
Despite that, some rather irresponsible media accounts, who were not on hand at Raiders camp to see how the whole Kermit doll thing transpired, began immediately wildly speculating that this puppet was brought to camp *by* Raiders players who were passing it around *among each other* and mocking Mahomes.
The person who originally posted the video deleted it when they realized how the media was seizing upon it and had misconstrued that the doll belonged to a fan and the only way it was being “passed around” was between fans.
Not only that, it was a young rookie in his first NFL training camp who picked it up. Someone who had never donned a Raiders jersey, let alone been a part of this rivalry or had ever faced Mahomes or the Chiefs in a game.
Was it a stupid move by Taylor? Oh, most definitely. Quite immature. And he was admonished by his head coach for doing it. In other words, the team did not approve of it. It was a stupid move by a young kid who will learn from it and which had absolutely nothing to do with the team.
No matter, message quickly got to Chiefs media who asked Mahomes about it and instead of just brushing it off as silly nonsense, Mahomes gave the media a nice red meat soundbite in response, saying “It’ll get handled when it gets handled” which Schefter put in his tweet about how the Chiefs “have not forgotten” about it.
And now, of course, the media is bringing up their own creation again, to get the fans worked up all over again.
The whole thing is one of the best examples of how the media has become an instigator, creating controversy where there shouldn’t be any and thus inserting themselves into this rivalry. And the Chiefs are willing and enthusiastic participants in this because — for whatever reason — are always looking for another reason to get motivated.
The loss on Christmas Day should be plenty for a dominant Chiefs team to take down a Raiders team in utter disarray, but, by all means, lets revisit the dumbest controversy of the offseason and run with it all over again.
