Tyrann Mathieu calls Chiefs fans ‘most toxic fan base in all of sports’

The Kansas City Chiefs have been having an ugly season on the field and things are now getting ugly off the field, as key defensive leaders for the team have started feuding with fans on social media.

Tweets started circulating early Friday evening with screenshots of linebacker Anthony Hitchens and safety Tyrann Mathieu arguing with and calling out Chiefs fans in the comments of an Instagram post.

What did Tyrann Mathieu say about Chiefs fans?

The whole thing seemed to start when Hitchens responded to a post questioning whether or not Chiefs GM Brett Veach should have signed Hitchens to such a large contract.

“All we did was go to 3 AFC champions games and 2 Super Bowls and 1 SB win,” the verified account baring Hitchens’ name replied. ” .. in my first 3 years here so far !!y’all fans will never be satisfied it’s sad !!”

Later the account added:

“These boys will never understand talk big on internet but want pics and autographs in person haha .. me my family and kids family “that don’t exist yet” are set for life !!! Y’all keep trolling put y’all phones down and go get some money , BTW y’all opinions don’t matter!!”

Then another verified account bearing Mathieu’s name responded:

“big facts. This might be one of the most toxic fan bases in all of sports.”

Sigh.

This whole situation sucks. I can understand the frustration from Mathieu and Hitchens. I have seen some of the ridiculous things fans have been saying to them on social media. In fact, I tweeted in defense of some comments made directly to Mathieu just days ago.

Chiefs fans are no different than any other fans. When the team struggles, hell, even when the team is doing well, there will always be a couple of knucklehead trolls who take to social media and say ridiculous things. We just did an entire segment on the Arrowhead Addict podcast this week where we took fans that think Andy Reid should be fired to task.

Athletes have a right to defend themselves against attacks. They are people and I assure you, they are way more frustrated than even the fans about the way the team is playing right now. That being said, the post in question that Hitchens was responding to, was not an unfair attack on the players. It was an opinion.

You can view it here. 

If a fan says something out of bounds to a player on social media, the player absolutely should clap back at them. However, a fair criticism or opinion should not be met with a player responding and lumping all of the fans into one category by calling them toxic.

The Chiefs are only 3-4 right now but the team is currently surrounded by so much negativity and sniping, you’d think they were 0-7. This is a time for the players to buckle down and figure out how to get back to playing championship-level football and while they may well be doing that, the social media drama sure doesn’t make it seem like they have their priorities in order.

It is easy to lead when everything is going well. The best leaders rise to the occasion and do some of their best work in times of crisis. Instead, tonight at least (and on Sunday when Mathieu was calling a reporter a liar on Twitter only seconds after the Chiefs got humiliated by the Tennessee Titans) the Chiefs aren’t getting leadership from Mathieu and Hitchen. They’re just getting more distraction and that is the last thing this struggling team needs.

My unsolicited advice to the Chiefs locker room? Lock it down. The fans are going to fan. The overwhelming majority are going to support you no matter what but there are going to be some assholes as well. Tune it out and band together because it doesn’t matter if the fans are cheering you or jeering you, the fans aren’t going to help you get out of the 3-4 hole you find yourselves in. The only way you can get out of it, is together, one game at a time.

Chiefs fans react on Twitter to Tyrann Mathieu calling the fan base “toxic”

As you can imagine, Chiefs fans were not thrilled with the comments made by Mathieu and Hitchens. Reactions ranged across the board. Some fans were somewhat sympathetic to the plight of the players while others were straight-up furious at being lumped in with a handful of online trolls. Chiefs fans, like most fans in the NFL, are prideful. They like to think they are the best and while they are usually awesome at supporting the players, one thing that never goes over well is when a player directly calls out the Chiefs Kingdom.

Let’s take a look at some of the reactions to the drama. We will start with Arrowhead Addict co-host, Matt Verderame, who jumped on Twitter last night to talk about the situation and take questions directly from fans:

https://twitter.com/PaulHBK/status/1454254369633886210

https://twitter.com/JayCastss/status/1454305732057239552