We’ve all seen it a thousand times. It’s fourth down. The ball is somewhere around midfield. The coach keeps the offense on the field, but after a series of hard counts where the quarterback tries to get the defense to jump offsides, he calls timeout and the team punts the ball. It’s a semi-regular occurrence in NFL games, except this past Sunday, the Chiefs completely changed the script and unexpectedly ran a play that resulted in a first down. After the game, Patrick Mahomes credited his work in State Farm commercials for helping him pull it off.
The play in question happened at the start of the second quarter. It was fourth down and a foot at the Chiefs’ own 40 yard line. Mahomes went through the normal fake hikes during his snapcount to try and get the Raiders to jump offsides. He then shrugged his shoulders and shouted, “This fucking never fucking works, man” at the sidelines. The announcers laughed, as his f-bombs were picked up by the on-field microphones, but then he unexpectedly snapped the ball and handed it off to Kareem Hunt, who ran for a first down.
The trick play worked exactly as intended, and not surprisingly, it was a topic of conversation after the game ended in a 31 to 0 victory for the Chiefs (and Taylor Swift who watched from a suite). Mahomes was asked about how he pulled it off after the game, and he hilariously pointed to his work in commercials.
I think it comes from all my State Farm commercials.
After everyone laughed, Mahomes, of course, credited his offensive coordinator and the actual offensive linemen who had to actually still block the other team. That’s what allowed Hunt to run through and get the first down, not his fantastic acting. In all fairness though, his acting was pretty good, and I’m sure his experience shooting all those State Farm commercials helped him deliver his scripted lines.
You can watch video of the actual play below, which is all over social media. You gotta love how the f-bombs are so loud that announcer Tony Romo apologized to the viewing audience…
Patrick Mahomes fools both Tony Romo and the Raiders.”This f*cking never f*cking works.”It did here. pic.twitter.com/6J2LXsODj5October 19, 2025
It’ll be interesting to see how much Mahomes continues to do commercials as he gets into the latter part of his career and later into retirement. Some all-time legends like Michael Jordan do a commercial here or there but mostly keep to themselves. Others like Peyton Manning and Charles Barkley have found lucrative second careers as media personalities and product spokesmen for a wide variety of companies.
Given Mahomes’ success, he could likely find plenty of commercial work. He’s got a fun personality and has built a really enjoyable rapport with Coach Andy Reid and teammate Travis Kelce, who he often stars in State Farm commercials with. It’s easy to see that presence growing if he wants, but he also might just be happy doing it as an occasional thing.
The Chiefs got off to a rough start when they lost their first two games, but they’ve won 4 of their last 5 and are starting to look like Super Bowl contenders again.