Patrick Mahomes says Jackson’s baptism of Ravens fans was wrong

Late on Sunday night, a video emerged online that would only continue to build up some steam as it spread around the interwebs. It was a short phone video of Jackson Mahomes, the younger brother of Patrick Mahomes, pouring part of a bottle of water out on the heads of a couple Baltimore Ravens fans as they chanted back.

Since then, the video has become a lightning rod of commentary on social media, as you might expect. In fact, it’s reached a level where reporters are asking Patrick Mahomes about it and where the mayor of Kansas City is weighing in on things from his own Twitter account.

Welcome to 2021.

First, if you’re new to the whole episode and/or saying, “Wait, Jackson did what, again?”, then we owe you a quick explainer.

On Sunday night, the Chiefs were visiting the Ravens in a much-anticipated Sunday Night Football matchup. The primetime game featured the heavily favored Chiefs taking on the injury-decimated Ravens, but the Ravens defied the predictions of nearly everyone to stay in stride with the Chiefs even as they scored 35 points on the night. In fact, behind the incredible talents of Lamar Jackson, the Ravens put together a double-digit fourth-quarter comeback that made the Chiefs feel like every other team they typically put away at the last second.

On this particular night, the elder Mahomes actually had the Chiefs right where they wanted to be, in control of the ball within field goal range as the clock ticked down. Then Clyde Edwards-Helaire had the ball punched out of his hand on a short run play by Odafe Oweh and the tide completely turned. Just like that, the Chiefs went from probable winners and a 2-0 record to losing a tough road game.

In short, emotions were high (and only getting higher) for the entirety of the game. Then came this episode:

In the video above, a full-throated Ravens fan is yelling up at the suite in which the Mahomes’ family/friends were positioned for the game, saying, “I’m so sorry for ya! I’m so sorry for ya!” Jackson’s decision in that moment was to pour out part of his water bottle on the fan and then leave.

Three days later, apparently things have built so much that Quinton Lucas, the mayor of Kansas City, is invested enough to come to Jackson’s defense.

Jackson, of course, appreciated the sentiment and public support.

Yet the criticism hasn’t died down and it was only a matter of time before Patrick would have to go on the record about the whole incident.

It’s unfortunate that the full context is not available here, because it’s easy to point fingers at the wrongdoing of one and yet allow someone else to hide behind the lack of evidence for them. For someone to be that emotional likely meant there were some ugly things said, and it’s not hard to picture an environment where rowdy fans stirred something up. Then again, Patrick made it clear that these things aren’t okay and any visiting team’s family has to know what they’re getting into.

At this point, the entire issue has likely reached its zenith. The Baltimore fans didn’t seem to care too much about getting water poured on them, given the celebratory spirit of the moment, and the standings after the game did the loudest talking of all.