Kyle Long's Perspective Of Being On The Sidelines For Last Year's Bills-Chiefs Playoff Game Is As Cool As It Gets
On Wednesday's episode of Pardon My Take… KYLE LONG! The recurring guest of the show joined Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter in studio to discuss playing with Patrick Mahomes, who some of the scariest guys in the league to play against are, the hardest hit he has ever taken, and much more.
The guard spent seven seasons with the Chicago Bears, and most recently, a year with the Kansas City Chiefs. Before retiring in April, Long was on the sidelines for January's playoff game between the Chiefs and Bills. What was it like to have a front row seat to that instant classic? We got some very cool answers on the show:
Mr. Cat: You were obviously on the sideline for the Bills game, right?
Kyle Long: Yeah, it was awesome.
Mr. Cat: So actually, weirdly enough, they were playing it on ESPN last night. They were doing like the mic'd up, retrospective of the game. That moment when Travis Kelce, with like seven seconds left, just turned to Mahomes and was like, "Yo, I'm going to be open up the seam here," and then Mahomes is like, "Do it, do it, do it," right before he snaps the ball.
Kyle Long: The play happened before the play.
Mr. Cat: It was crazy.
Kyle Long: It was like something I'd never seen before. And I'll go back to the things I was appreciative about being there, is you get to see the synergy of some of these Hall of Famers. Travis Kelce puts in work, when the offense and defense are over there doing their drills, sometimes Travis will take five minute and I watch him, he goes to the other field and he closes his eyes, he walks through routes, he visualizes things, and you kind of laugh at him.
Kyle Long: You're like, "What's Mr. Miyagi doing over there?" And then he goes out and you see the same three moves that he was practicing over there come to life on the field. It could be against the Chargers when he caught that ball over the middle and ran for, god damn, 99, whatever the hell it was, the game was over. Same thing with the Bills game. It's, you know, Pat [Mahomes] and Travis finding a way to link up, and man, it's so special to watch.
Mr. Cat: it was very, very cool for him to just, like, backyard football, be like, "Hey look, I see the leverage the cornerback has, I'm just going to run up the seam here, just hit me." And he did, and it was, like, that was the game. It was, I don't know… that type of football.
Kyle Long: That was the first game that Chris went to when I was on the Chiefs because Iw as back in pads, I was on the active roster. I was, you know, next man up, and I was ready.
Mr. Cat: Were you doing special teams?
Kyle Long: I wasn't I was just backup right tackle, right guard.
Mr. Cat: Ready to go.
Kyle Long: And every day I went against Frank Clark, and at first, I was on one and a half legs, and they put me in at guard and I had to figure out how to get on two legs against Chris Jones. Again, he landed on me inadvertently in the spring, and that's how I got my leg broken. But going back against him was like a mental hurdle, so I was ready to go. That Bills game, dad was there as well in the suite, so they got to watch that game and dad now has an in-person appreciation for what Patrick can do and what the offense is capable of.
Being able to witness Patrick Mahomes do his thing in-person must be a treat. Being able to witness Patrick Mahomes do his thing in-person while ALSO being his teammate on the sidelines? That must be incredible. It was really cool to hear Kyle Long's perspective on this game (which was also Big Cat's Game of the Year). One of the best playoff games ever.