During the final minutes of CBS’ broadcast of the Cincinnati Bengals’ divisional-round win against the Bills in Buffalo, play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz asked color analyst Tony Romo what he thought about the prospect of Kansas City Chiefs starting quarterback Patrick Mahomes playing in the AFC title game against Cincinnati at Arrowhead Stadium.
Mahomes was diagnosed with a right high ankle sprain and is expected to play in the AFC championship game.
‘It’s challenging,’ Romo said, ‘because when I did it, I wasn’t able to actually play the next week. In other words, you can’t walk. You can play the day of. So when it happened yesterday, I was like, ‘He’s gonna play today. He’s gonna go ahead and like tape it up. He’s gonna go out there and adrenaline’s gonna kick in – he’s gonna be fine.’ The next day – he’s not gonna be able to do anything. He’s gonna almost be on crutches on Wednesday.
‘It depends but … for what it looked like I would tell you, for those of you thinking it’s 100 percent that he plays, it’s gonna take a lot. Will he play? I think yes. He’s Patrick Mahomes. He’s young. You have the ability to get healthier faster. But at the same time, I just don’t know if he’s going to be able to be Patrick Mahomes. I can tell you right now – he’s not going to have the same athleticism that he had throughout most of the year. So you know that going in.’
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ESPN’s Adam Schefter first reported via Twitter that an MRI confirmed that Mahomes suffered a high-ankle sprain.