TAMPA, Florida – Immediately after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 in the Super Bowl LV on Sunday, Bucs quarterback Tom Brady sent an apology to Chiefs security guard Tyrann Mathieu for several verbal altercations on the field , according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
ESPN read the text out loud.
Brady apologized to Mathieu for losing his composure in the heat of the moment, about which Mathieu said, “I never saw that side of him.”
During the game, Brady and Mathieu fought several times. At one point, Brady even chased him and hit him in the face.
Brady called Mathieu “the final competitor” in his apology text and said he knew he needed to match Mathieu’s intensity on Sunday.
Brady told Mathieu that he had been watching him since his days at LSU and praised Mathieu for his heart, calling him an “incredible leader, champion and class act.”
Brady also expressed his desire to apologize personally in the future. He said his outbursts at an emotional time were by no means a reflection of his feelings for Mathieu, of whom he spoke a lot during the week before the game.
Mathieu explained his side of the strife, saying in an excluded tweet that Brady started the verbal fight when he called Mathieu “something I won’t repeat”.
“He’s clearly chasing me, but I was flagged,” said Mathieu in another deleted tweet.