Tom Brady And Tyrann Mathieu's On-Air Super Bowl Confrontation Explained
In the spirit of any championship event, the Super Bowl is no stranger to real-time, on-air moments of drama and tension. Despite the already unprecedented context of the 2021 final season game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs occurring in the middle of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it seems that tradition ultimately prevailed in the form of a kerfuffle between Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady and Kansas City safety Tyrann Mathieu right after a touchdown awarded to the Buccaneers.
According to The New York Post, roughly midway through Super Bowl LV, an altercation between Brady and Mathieu purportedly took place on the field after a play orchestrated by Brady ultimately resulted in the Buccaneers scoring their third touchdown of the game. The confrontation was apparently so heated that Brady was apparently heard uttering "f**ck him" from the Bucs' bench after the altercation. What exactly caused the rival football players to confront each other on the field, and how did NFL officials respond to the incident? Keep reading to find out.
Tom Brady and Tyrann Mathieu clashed after a touchdown
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and Kansas City Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu seemingly exchanged words during Super Bowl LV. Here's how it went down.
Brady completed a pass to teammate Antonio Brown, which resulted in the Buccaneers scoring their third touchdown before halftime and taking a 21 to 6 lead. Per the New York Post, Brady then "appeared to chase down" Mathieu to give him an earful. According to Yahoo! Sports, Mathieu reportedly stuck a finger in Brady's face as Brady approached him and spouted some words of his own. What followed was a heated exchange between Mathieu and Brady, with a referee calling a 15-year penalty on Mathieu for unsportsmanlike conduct, but Brady was not penalized.
This isn't the first time this season that Brady has gotten into an argument on the field with a member of the Kansas City Chiefs. As The Kansas City Star previously noted, Brady got into a similar altercation with defensive tackle Chris Jones in November 2020, after Jones supposedly made an unflattering remark to the QB.
Tom Brady ended up leading the Buccaneers to victory
Following the back and forth between Tampa Bay Buccaneers' quarterback Tom Brady and Kansas City Chiefs' safety Tyrann Mathieu, it became clear that Brady is someone you don't want to mess with on the field. CBS Sports reported that Mathieu was still visibly upset "as he left for the locker room at the halftime break after his second encounter with Brady."
As for Brady, the squabble didn't seem to affect his legendary quarterback skills. He showed up after the halftime break seemingly unfazed by the fiery altercation with Mathieu, and, instead, appeared to be even more eager to take down the Chiefs. WEEI 93.7 (via Radio.com) reported, "Mathieu going at Brady earlier in the half seemed to fire the quarterback up even more, potentially even causing him to target him with some of his passes."
At the end of the night, Brady ended up winning his seventh Super Bowl ring and landing the Buccaneers their second Super Bowl win.
Tyrann Mathieu addressed the altercation
So, what does Kansas City Chiefs player Tyrann Mathieu think of the now even more iconic quarterback Tom Brady following his team's Super Bowl LV loss? Well, after the game, Matheiu opened up to reporters about the on-field run-in with Brady, revealing how he really feels about the QB.
According to WEEI 93.7 (via Radio.com), Mathieu said, "Listen, Tom Brady's a great quarterback." He added, "I never really saw that side of Tom Brady, to be honest. But whatever. No comment. It's over with. I'm done with it." He then continued, "It's football, so, you know, guys are gonna, you know, go back and forth." However, that's not all he said about the matter. Apparently, he took things even further and went on Twitter to address the altercation.
"[Brady] called me something I won't repeat but yeah I'll let all the media throw me under the bus as if I did something or said something to him," he wrote in a since-deleted tweet (via TMZ), adding, "Go back to my previous games against TB12. I showed him nothing but respect. Look at my interviews about him ... I show grace."
Despite the fact that the tweet has been deleted, it seemed like there was still tension between the two players. However, right after the big game, Brady reportedly reached out to clear the air, sending a text to Mathieu. Per ESPN, "Brady apologized to Mathieu for losing his composure in the heat of the moment." The outlet also reported that in addition to calling the Chiefs safety the "ultimate competitor," he also "expressed his desire to apologize in person in the future."