While most NFL fans would name Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes as the best quarterback in the division due to his consistency and ability to produce when the pressure is on, it seems his popularity isn’t at the sky high level as some might have expected

Mahomes and the Chiefs are chasing the unprecedented status of becoming Super Bowl winners three times in a row, and few would back against them after their recent success over the San Francisco 49ers.

But critics believe the Chiefs are only successful due to the lack of genuine opposition elsewhere in the NFL, with the Kansas City team carried by the hype on Mahomes, Travis Kelce and their resolute defense. Addressing the debate, NFL analysts Mike Florio and Myles Simmons discussed whether Chiefs are the most hated team in the NFL, with Simmons declaring that Mahomes, 28, is regarded as an ‘public enemy’ following his success.

Appearing on NFL on NBC, he said: “He [Mahomes] has made the Kansas City Chiefs so good and he is so good that now it’s gone from ‘oh what a great story, Patrick Mahomes is so good, he is so awesome’, to ‘I am so sick of Patrick Mahomes, I am sick of the Chiefs, I am tired of the Chiefs, I don’t want to see the Chiefs anymore’. That’s what makes him a public enemy.”

Much like how Tom Brady and the New England Patriots were criticized for their dominance of the NFL, Mahomes admitted he is happy to be a villain to the neutrals if it means the Chiefs keep on winning. “I can definitely sense it. I never felt like that because I’ve never been like that in my entire life,” he said in February. “But it’s become a little bit funny. I don’t want to say you enjoy it, I know the Patriots had that for a while.

I’m hoping we do it in a different way with a little bit more fun and personality with it. But as long as you keep winning, teams start to not like you, and I want to keep winning. “So if that means some of the other teams and other fan bases aren’t going to like me, I’ll try to still have a smile on my face and not be a bad example, but I can be that villain for them if they need me to be.”