Mahomes describes Pokémon-inspired Super Bowl play
The Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes defied the Madden NFL 23 Super Bowl prediction and took home another championship with their victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. Things got pretty close, though, and not everything worked smoothly for the eventual winners.
During a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel, the host questioned the triumphant quarterback on a trick-play that caught the eyes of fans during the big match. The Chiefs’ offense gathered in a group before the snap, huddling together and then suddenly spinning around before running to their positions.
Mahomes says that the idea of the play was to throw the ball to Andrew Wylie, the Chiefs' right tackle, thereby catching the opposing defense off-guard. Things didn't go as planned, however, as Mahomes threw the ball out of bounds. Wylie’s movement was caught pretty quickly, so the Eagles were not as slow to react as hoped.
The Super Bowl MVP continued: “Wylie, the guy we were trying to get the ball to, is a big Pokémon collector. So, it was a Pikachu formation and it was called ‘Gotta Catch ‘em All’.”
Wylie is in pretty good company with his love for Pokémon: Detroit Lions RB Jamaal Williams also made waves earlier this year by openly showing his love for the little pocket monsters, correcting a reporter on their pronunciation of “Pokémon”.
While this field-test of the ‘Gotta Catch ‘em All’ play and the Pikachu formation was not crowned with success, we can certainly see some potential in Pokémon-inspired plays. Rapid Spin might be a move the Chiefs want to look into, but playing the Crabhammer or something equally exotic would also be fun.
One thing we’ve all learned from this interview is that the Philadelphia Eagles must be liars: After all, eagles are Flying-type creatures, which should take additional damage from an Electric-type move like the Pikachu formation. Since the play was not very effective, though, they must belong to a completely different type.
