Tom Brady And Tyrann Mathieu's On-Air Super Bowl Clash Explained

In the spirit of any championship event, the Super Bowl is no stranger to real-time, on-air moments of drama and tension. Despite the already unprecedented context of the 2021 final season game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs occurring in the middle of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, some things played out just as they always would -- in this case, an on-field personal conflict in the middle of the game. That tradition prevailed in the form of an on-air clash between Tom Brady and Tyrann Mathieu right after a touchdown awarded to the Buccaneers. The confrontation was apparently so heated that Brady was apparently heard cursing at Mathieu from the Bucs' bench after the altercation. What exactly caused the rival football players to confront each other on the field, and how did NFL officials respond to the incident? Here's how it went down. Brady completed a pass to teammate Antonio Brown, which resulted in the Buccaneers scoring their third touchdown before halftime and taking a 21 to 6 lead. Brady then seemed to pursue Mathieu to give him an earful. Mathieu reportedly stuck a finger in Brady's face as Brady approached him and spouted some words of his own. What followed was a heated exchange between Mathieu and Brady, with a referee calling a 15-yard penalty on Mathieu for unsportsmanlike conduct, but Brady was not penalized. This isn't the first time this season that Brady has gotten into an argument on the field with a member of the Kansas City Chiefs. As The Kansas City Star previously noted, Brady got into a similar altercation with defensive tackle Chris Jones in November 2020, after Jones supposedly made an unflattering remark to the QB. Following the back and forth between Brady and Mathieu, it became clear that the former New England Patriot is someone you don't want to mess with on the field. CBS Sports reported that Mathieu was still visibly upset at halftime following his encounter with Brady on the field. As for Brady, the squabble didn't seem to affect his legendary quarterback skills. He showed up after the halftime break seemingly unfazed by the fiery altercation with Mathieu, and, instead, appeared to be even more eager to take down the Chiefs. As radio station WEEI 93.7 reported, "Mathieu going at Brady earlier in the half seemed to fire the quarterback up even more, potentially even causing him to target him with some of his passes." At the end of the night, Brady ended up winning his seventh Super Bowl ring and landing the Buccaneers their second Super Bowl win. That makes him more than just the game's most successful player -- between his victories on the Patriots and the Buccaneers, he's now won the trophy more than any one team in NFL history. So, what does Kansas City Chiefs player Tyrann Mathieu think of the now even more iconic quarterback Tom Brady following his team's Super Bowl 55 loss? Well, after the game, Matheiu opened up to reporters about the on-field run-in with Brady, revealing how he really feels about the QB. Despite their on-field differences, he did still add that he thinks Tom Brady is, quote, "a great quarterback." He also continued to elaborate on their on-air clash, characterizing it, essentially, as nothing out of the ordinary. However, that's not all he said about the matter. Apparently, he took things even further and went on Twitter to address the altercation. In a since-deleted post, he wrote, "He called me something I won't repeat but yeah I'll let all the media throw me under the bus as if I did something or said something to him. Go back to my previous games against TB12 . I showed him nothing but respect. Look at my interviews about him ... I show grace." Turns out that Mathieu - nicknamed the Honey Badger for his aggressive nature - wasn’t too far off from his comments, it seems. Brady texted Mathieu an apology immediately after the game. According to ESPN - who heard the contents of the text read aloud - Brady lost his composure in the heat of the moment and wanted to personally reach out to Mathieu to apologize. #TomBrady #TyrannMathieu #SuperBowl