The Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs wasted no time being petty with each other before Sunday’s AFC title game. In warmups, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce tossed around Justin Tucker’s kicking equipment. Then, later, the Ravens’ Arthur Maulet threw a punch during a heated on-field exchange just before kickoff.
The “festivities” continued as the Chiefs and Ravens started throwing actual touchdowns at each other. After Zay Flowers caught a 30-yard laser from Lamar Jackson to knot the game up at 7-7, he and some of the other Ravens’ skill players did a “Swag Surfin” dance celebration.
It’s an apparent nod to a celebration the Chiefs themselves adopted as a team toward the end of the 2023 season, where Taylor Swift also went viral for doing it.
And hoo boy, do we love this kind of overt pettiness in a game to go to the Super Bowl:
swag surfin' pic.twitter.com/2wSxB9iiqX
— NFL (@NFL) January 28, 2024
This AFC title game has barely bled into the second quarter. One thing’s for sure: we will probably only see more heat between two of the NFL’s best teams.