With the final touches set to be placed on the upcoming NFL schedule, it doesn’t appear that the Kansas City Chiefs will open their season against the defending Super Bowl champions.
It’s been a tradition in the NFL that the previous year’s title winner – in this case, the Seattle Seahawks – opens the following season.
Kansas City already knows that they will be playing Seattle at some point in the season, but an exact date has not yet been announced.
However, coming out of the NFL owners’ meetings, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt expressed his belief that his team would not be playing the Seahawks to open their season.
But in doing so, he offered up an explanation which infuriated other fans and led to accusations of rigging the schedule in Kansas City’s favor: ‘I don’t think that’s on the table anymore,’ Hunt said of his team’s chances of opening in Seattle (via ESPN’s Nate Taylor).
‘I think from a league standpoint, there would be some concern whether [Patrick Mahomes] would be ready to go.’
Chiefs owner Clark Hunt indicated that his team will not open the season against the Seahawks
Hunt appeared to hint that an injury to superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes is the reason why they won’t start the season in Seattle
Fans complained that this was another sign of the league favoring Mahomes and the Chiefs
The owner added, ‘My guess is the [NFL] won’t want to take that risk. We’ve all seen some of the videos of [Mahomes’] rehab. By every indication, he’s ahead of schedule, and has worked really hard to be ahead of schedule.’
Additionally, while Hunt said his team hasn’t formally requested to open their season on Monday Night Football – like the New England Patriots did in 2009 after Tom Brady came back from a torn ACL – the owner admitted, ‘It sounds like a good idea [for the NFL], although it’s only 1 [more] day.’
Fans were outraged by this admission, believing it to be a sign that the league was prepared to give the Chiefs an easy start to the schedule in order for Mahomes to fully recover.
‘This is absolutely insane to me if this is true. WTH does it matter if Mahomes is good to go or not? The schedule should be the schedule. What, are they gonna backload all the good teams halfway through the year so he’ll be back in time?’ said one user on X.
One said, ‘So what I’m hearing is because Patrick is the face of the league if he was healthy then probably would be opening against the Seahawks am I right?’
‘So the Chiefs get the easy schedule until their QB gets back?? Weak s**t,’ read another user.
Mahomes’ recovery from that late-season tear is far ahead of schedule – with signs pointing to him possibly returning in Week 1.
