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Jamison Hensley, ESPN Personnel Author
OWINGS MILLS, Md.– Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker has actually heated up before video games the exact same method for 12 years and had actually never ever experienced an issue in the past– up until Sunday’s AFC National championship.
About 90 minutes before kickoff, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and quarterback Patrick Mahomes complained Tucker extending near where Mahomes was heating up. Numerous videos revealed Mahomes two times tossing Tucker’s kicking tee aside and after that Kelce kicking a few of Tucker’s footballs off to the side and flinging Tucker’s helmet off the field.
” I simply believed it was all some gamesmanship, all in great enjoyable,” Tucker stated Monday, a day after the Ravens’ 17-10 loss to the Chiefs. “However it appeared to be taken a bit more seriously. I’m completely happy to let all of it go.”
Tucker, the most precise kicker in NFL history, discussed that this is how kickers around the league have actually constantly prepared for video games. Kickers will make numerous efforts at both objective posts to get a feel for the wind and the playing surface area.
On Sunday, Mahomes was taking his dropbacks near his own objective line, where Tucker had his helmet, kicking tee and 3 kicking balls. Mahomes asked Tucker if he might move his helmet.
” So I gladly got up and I moved my helmet out of the method,” Tucker stated. “A minimum of, I believe it sufficed out of the method.”
Tucker explained Kelce and Mahomes as “2 of the very best gamers that have actually ever played the video game at their particular positions.” He acknowledged that it was an extreme environment however discovered it “ridiculous” that he needed to deal with something that occurred before the video game.
” I actually do not see it as a huge offer,” Tucker stated. “I believe if you simply see the entire interaction and after that you simply see us at the coin toss– we’re all dapping each other up and after that we simply proceed with the football video game.”