Patrick Mahomes’ shameless flop on non-late hit is sign NFL needs to institute a flopping penalty

Patrick Mahomes is already one of the greatest NFL players of all time. He shouldn’t be able to create more advantages for himself by playing outside the lines and gaming the referees. (And those referees shouldn’t be so seemingly eager to help his efforts.)

We saw this firsthand on Saturday afternoon, during the fourth quarter of the Kansas City Chiefs’ divisional-round matchup with the Houston Texans.

With the Chiefs driving deep into Houston territory, Mahomes ran out of bounds. However, he clearly stopped just before the white line, only to take a hit that pushed his momentum off the field. Mahomes took this opportunity to egregiously flop and flail his arms as if he had been hit late (he was not)

Of course, the refs at the game did not penalize Mahomes for this:

can't believe the refs didn't flag this egregious late hit on Mahomes pic.twitter.com/4TdDcBRRT2

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) January 18, 2025

Naturally, Mahomes quickly made the Texans pay after the fact with a ridiculous touchdown pass while falling down:

MAHOMES TD TO KELCE AS HE FALLS DOWN

: #HOUvsKC on ESPN/ABC
: Stream on @NFLPlus and ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/ytEUsoGyin

— NFL (@NFL) January 18, 2025

There isn’t officially a flopping penalty in the NFL rulebook. However, penalties for flops have been called before under the definition of unsportsmanlike conduct.

It’s damaging sequences like this that show the NFL should specifically delineate flops by offensive players and punish anyone who tries them — especially when it’s the face of the league setting this kind of example.