Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes were giddy over 49ers coin toss decision

August 13, 2024

The moment was the most controversial of Super Bowl LVIII and, when it happened, the Kansas City Chiefs felt fate had favored them to repeat as NFL champions.

That’s because when the San Francisco 49ers won the coin toss before overtime, Coach Kyle Shanahan opted to take the ball rather than kicking off. The Niners took a 22-19 lead on a field goal, but the Chiefs knew they could win it with a touchdown on their possession and that, because they couldn’t punt, Patrick Mahomes had four downs in which to engineer the game-winning drive. He did just that, with a touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman.

Just how buoyed the Chiefs were by the decision became clear when the NFL’s video of mic’d up Mahomes and Travis Kelce was aired Wednesday by the CW’s “Inside the NFL.”

In the mic’d up video, Mahomes, the Chiefs’ representative in the coin flip, kept his cool as he sprinted back to the sideline, repeating, “They want it, they want it, baby” until perhaps he fully believed it.

“We want ’em to have the ball,” the video shows Kelce telling teammates. “They want it, they can have it.”

In his “New Heights” podcast with his brother, Travis described the moments for Jason Kelce with a mixture of disbelief and delight. “You win the coin toss, that’s what you get. You get the opportunity to have the advantage. And they gave it right over to us,” he said. “Damn.”

The Kelces found Shanahan’s decision inexplicable because the Chiefs, like Jason Kelce’s Philadelphia Eagles, prepare by reviewing the rules. They knew exactly what the situation was, but at least two 49ers, Kyle Juszczyk and Arik Armstead, later said they were unaware of the overtime procedure that was implemented in 2022. Shanahan defended his decision.

“None of us have a ton of experience with it,” Shanahan said. “We went through all the analytics and talked to those guys. We decided it would be better getting the ball because if both teams matched and scored, we wanted to be the ones to have a chance to go and win it.”

Travis said he wasn’t “trying to harp on the guy, but it was a huge [mistake]. When they said they wanted to receive and the ref looked at Fred [Warner], he said, ‘Are you sure? Are you sure you want to receive?' And he said, ‘Yeah, I want the ball.’ I jumped out of my seat and said, 'Hey, hey. Here we go. Let’s go, boys. They want to receive? We get second possession and know exactly [what we need to do to win]. Defense, hold 'em. Just hold ‘em to three. Hold 'em to three. We’re gonna go down here and win this thing, baby.’”

Kyle Shanahan blew it by taking the ball first in overtime. Or did he?

Jason Kelce and Eagles Coach Nick Siriani, who were texting one another, discussed it even before the toss “because we go over the same situation.”

Former quarterback Jay Cutler noted on the “Inside the NFL” telecast, “You’re going to give Patrick Mahomes the ball second and give him four downs? Someone’s getting fired. The Chiefs got exactly what they wanted.”

Even referee Bill Vinovich, who was mic’d up by NFL Films, knew the danger posed by Mahomes as he and umpire Terry Killens speculated about San Francisco’s strategy before the snap as the end of regulation approached.

“Your best play that you have in your book right now,” Vinovich told Killens as regulation was winding down, “'cause you don’t wanna give Mahomes the ball back.”

Yet that’s what happened and the Chiefs’ Harrison Butker kicked the tying field goal with three seconds left. And Cutler was right that someone would be fired. It was defensive coordinator Steve Wilks on Wednesday.

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