Shannon Sharpe Blames Exclusive Streaming Deals for Patrick Mahomes’ Discomfort After Chiefs QB Spoke Against NFL Schedule

The Chiefs have games every day of the week except Tuesday. About a dozen Sunday games, a Black Friday game, a Christmas game, and other prime-time opportunities might squeeze all the juice out of the Chiefs’ signal caller. After all, the Chiefs will start against the Ravens and the Bengals in their first two games. This is good for business, but bad for Patrick Mahomes.

Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson highlighted Mahomes’ catch-22. The Chiefs have a bye week after week 5 and that’s what Mahomes is frustrated with. “The only thing I don’t like is the early bye,” said the QB and highlighted, “The early bye is always tough. But other than that, I’m just ready to play football.” Even Mike North, the NFL VP of broadcasting admitted that “We maybe gave the Chiefs the hardest schedule in the league.”

Unc and Ocho picked up on the conversation and pointed out why this was happening to the Chiefs. “Much is given, much is required,” is the notion that Sharpe and Johnson agreed to when they witnessed what lies ahead of the leader men in red. Mahomes has a prime-time game on Black Friday against the Las Vegas Raiders set to stream on Amazon’s Prime and a Christmas game against the Steelers, set to stream on Netflix.

So, you got the Black Friday game, which is the game after Thanksgiving, you got the Christmas Day game, you got two Saturday games, two Sunday night games, two Monday night games. Well, my Mahomeboy everybody wants to see you, bro,” said Sharpe with excitement. But the reason behind giving the Chiefs a tough schedule might be the profits the games will make.

Per Michael McCarthy of the NFL Front Office, Amazon Prime will pay as high as $120 million for the streaming rights. The figure is about the same for Netflix where they will pay about $150 million to broadcast two games, per reports. “And plus, the fact of the matter is Ocho, that Black Friday game, we sellin’ that to Amazon. Well, if I’m going to spend $100-$150 million, I mean, I need box office. Who’s more box office than Mahomeboy?” said Sharpe and added, “Netflix, they’re streaming the Christmas Day game. I need box office. Who’s more box office than Mahomeboy?”

But despite all the cruelty that lies ahead, Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes are sure that they can tackle the challenges head-first. This is the first time since 1927 when the New York Football Yankees had the toughest season. In fact, this is the first time in Andy Reid’s professional career to take on such an uphill battle. However, Reid seems to be nonchalant about the same and is focused on winning. It’s also to be noted this will make things tough for back-to-back Super Bowl champions, even if they don’t admit it.

“It’s the first time in my career that it’s that unique (schedule). So you know how we are. I mean, we don’t really care,” said Reid. “They could give us a Tuesday game. If they want, we’ll be okay there too. We’ll work through it and we’ll play anybody anywhere, whatever. Whatever they want to do, we’re on board.”

Patrick Mahomes shows the same confidence, but the only thing that bothers him is the early bye week. The Chiefs will play 9 out of their last 15 games on the road, which is a challenge in its own right. But even if the odds are stacked against Patrick Mahomes, he’s committed to outdo his last season, where he broke Brady and Gronk’s record of touchdowns in the postseason.

“[I] feel like our schedule has gotten crazier and crazier every single year,” Mahomes explained. “It’s just about preparing for the week ahead of you. We know that we’re going to have a lot of primetime games, and we’ve built up the equity to be in those games. Now it’s about how can we find a way to be better than last year at the end of the season.

All people want to see is how the Chiefs are going to tackle this off-season riddled with relentless travel, a strong start against the Ravens and the Chiefs, and a necessity to defend the back-to-back Super Bowl wins. Would Patrick Mahomes still reign supreme? What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.