Patrick Mahomes did not shake the hand of Samaje Perine during the closing moments of the Super Bowl on Sunday. The latter claims it was much ado about nothing, which seems to be the case, but a new video of the viral moment does not help the optics.
Even if not intentional, the snub was still very awkward!
Mahomes went down the sideline while the Philadelphia Eagles were on offense late in the fourth quarter. He made a point to stop and shake the hand of every player who sat or stood near the bench. That list includes JuJu Smith-Schuster, Hollywood Brown and Isiah Pacheco. They all got a dap and/or a hug.
However, the three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback walked right past Perine to get to Travis Kelce. At no point did Mahomes look in the direction of the Kansas City Chiefs’ backup running back.
It almost seemed like he ignored him on purpose. Is there an underlying beef between them?
No, there is not. Samaje Perine downplayed the entire exchange and claimed that he only stood up to tie his pants — not to dap up his superstar teammate.
Although that may be true, the initial video shows that he reached out his hand to accept a handshake. His head then swiveled to watch the exchange between Mahomes and Kelce.
A new video from the NFL does not show the moment where Patrick Mahomes walked right past Perine. It does show that the latter looked right at the former and tried to initiate eye contact as he walked past.
Even if the handshake snub was not on purpose or ill-intentioned as Samaje Perine says, it happened! His quarterback completely ignored him while making a beeline to his tight end. There may not be any reason to read further into the blow-by but there is no way to deny that it took place.