Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes reflect on Super Bowl loss, Kelce’s future
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(NEW ORLEANS) — Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes opened up on the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl defeat and Kelce’s future after falling to the Philadelphia Eagles 40-22 on Sunday night.
“There’s a lot that goes into it. You don’t lose like that without everything going bad,” Kelce said, speaking to reporters after game.
“Couldn’t get it going offensively. I mean they just got after us on all three phases — and then on top of that, turnovers, penalties,” the Chiefs tight end explained.
He added that in his eyes, the most surprising element of the game was “that we haven’t played that bad all year.”
Kelce highlighted a bright spot for the Chiefs, noting their late game push. “This team is going to fight ’till the end forever, and you saw that, even with the score late, we’re always going to fight,” he said.
The three-time Super Bowl champion said Chiefs coach Andy Reid delivered a teaching moment to the team after the game. He said Reid’s message was, “This one’s gonna hurt. Let it hurt, and figure out how to get better because of it.”
Mahomes talks Kelce’s potential retirement, Super Bowl loss
Star quarterback Mahomes, meanwhile, discussed Kelce’s future while speaking with reporters after the game.
When asked if he would begin to encourage Kelce to come back to the Chiefs next year for his 13th NFL season, Mahomes said he would be patient with his teammate.
“I’ll let Travis make that decision on his own, man,” Mahomes said. “He’s given so much to this team and to the NFL and been such a joy not only for me to work with, but for people to watch.”
He continued, “He knows he still has a lot of football left in him. You can see it. He always makes plays in the biggest moments.”
Mahomes said the decision will come down to whether his teammate still wants to put in the hard work to get through another NFL season.
“It’s if he wants to put in that grind, cause it’s a grind to go out there and play 20 games.”
Mahomes added that no matter Kelce’s decision, he believes his teammate’s legacy is secure as a Hall of Fame player.
“He knows, he’ll come back here with welcome arms. We love that guy not only for the football player, but the person that he is every single day,” he said.
Kelce speculated on his own future at a press conference last week in New Orleans.
“Where will I be in three years? Oh man, I don’t know. Hopefully still playing football. I love doing this. I love coming into work every day. I feel like I still got a lot of good football left in me. But, we’ll see what happens,” he said, adding that he’s explored other career options in the offseasons because “football only lasts for so long.”
In his postgame interview, Mahomes called losing a Super Bowl “the worst feeling in the world” and said the feeling “will stick with you the rest of your career.”
He added that he will use the loss as motivation moving forward.
(NEW YORK) — Buffalo Bills fans are coming together to show their support for a Baltimore Ravens player following Sunday’s divisional matchup between the two teams.
During Sunday’s playoff game, Ravens tight end Mark Andrews fumbled a pass that ultimately gave the Bills the opportunity to clinch their 27-25 win. Andrews’ fumble sparked vitriol online and even threats.
Amid the outrage, a Bills fan started a GoFundMe to raise money for Breakthrough T1D, a diabetes-focused nonprofit organization that Andrews, who has Type 1 diabetes, has long supported.
Initially, the Bills fan set a $5,000 fundraising goal but as of publication, nearly 3,000 people have donated over $90,000 and counting in just three days.
The Ravens shared the fundraiser in a post on X and added, “Shout out to Bills Mafia for showing support to our guy Mark Andrews and donating to the @BreakthroughT1D organization, which works towards curing and improving the lives of those dealing with Type 1 diabetes. 💜.”
Breakthrough T1D also thanked Bills fans and said the money raised will go towards Type 1 diabetes research and advocacy for people living with the incurable condition.
“Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) greatly appreciates the generosity of the Buffalo Bills community and the many fans who were compelled to donate after Sunday’s game,” the nonprofit said in a statement. “These donations will support research and advocacy on behalf of the 1.6 million Americans who, like Mark Andrews, live with type 1 diabetes.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people with Type 1 diabetes don’t produce insulin or don’t produce enough insulin, a protein-derived hormone that helps blood sugar get absorbed in the body. Type 1 diabetes is less common than Type 2 diabetes and the CDC estimates only about 5-10% of those with diabetes have the Type 1 version. Andrews has not commented publicly since Sunday’s game on the outcome or Bills fans’ fundraising.
The Bills will face off next against the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday’s AFC championship game, which will be held at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.
(LOS ANGELES) — Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter for MLB star Shohei Ohtani, was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison on Thursday on charges related to stealing nearly $17 million from the Dodgers player. The sentence was handed down nearly a year after the gambling controversy first surfaced.
Mizuhara, 40, admitted to fraudulently transferring the money from Ohtani’s account for more than two years to pay his gambling debts, including impersonating the athlete on two dozen occasions in calls to the bank, according to a plea agreement in the case.
The 57-month sentence was awarded for one count of bank fraud. On a second count, for subscribing to a false tax return, he was given 36 months — to be served concurrently with the 57 months.
Prosecutors called the scheme “deep” and “extensive” fraud and that Ohtani was “harmed substantially” by Mizuhara’s actions.
Mizuhara is scheduled to surrender on March 24.
He was additionally sentenced to three years supervised release and ordered to pay more than $18 million in restitution — including nearly $17 million to Ohtani, more than $1 million to the IRS and court fines.
Mizuhara, a permanent resident of the U.S., also faces a risk of deportation back to his native Japan upon completion of the federal sentence, prosecutors said.
Joseph McNally, the acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said outside the courthouse following the hearing that the sentence reflects the “seriousness of the offense and sends a strong message.”
He also emphasized the harm done to Ohtani, who submitted a victim impact statement to the court that has been sealed.
“In this case, he had money stolen from him. He was taken advantage of. He was preyed on by Mr. Mizuhara,” McNally said. “Mr. Mizuhara lied, he cheated and he stole. His behavior was shameless.”
Mizuhara asks judge for mercy
In a three-page letter to Judge John Holcomb filed ahead of Thursday afternoon’s hearing in Santa Ana, California, Mizuhara asked for a “merciful and not punitive” sentence and set out to explain why he committed the fraud.
He described mounting financial stresses that he said led him to use an online sports betting website run by Mathew Bowyer starting in 2021. He said that due to his “ignorance to the gambling industry,” he did not realize it was an illegal gambling business until early 2024.
“Being desperate for money at the time, I stupidly thought this might be an opportunity to help myself out financially and started to use his website for sports betting. And before I knew it, the results were the complete opposite,” Mizuhara wrote. “My gambling debt had grown so much that I could not find any way to pay it but to use Shohei’s money … I felt terribly guilty about putting my hands on his money but this was the only solution I could think of at the time.”
Mizuhara also said that the offseason was “physically and mentally” harder while detailing some of his errands for Ohtani, such as driving him to trainings, taking his dog to the vet and fixing his bicycle — saying he had “almost no true days off.”
“I felt like I was getting severely underpaid but I was afraid to speak up for myself as I was on a one year contract every year and I didn’t want to upset them and end up getting fired,” he wrote.
Mizuhara said he hopes to use his experience to help others dealing with gambling problems. He also outlined the impact a prison sentence would have on his wife.
“I understand that I have made a decision that will impact my entire life and I am not making excuses for what I have done. I am not trying to justify my actions in any way. I am asking that you will look at me as a man and believe change can happen,” he said. “I don’t believe an apology will fix my wrong. I am prepared [to] accept my consequences. I am asking for a little mercy from the court concerning my sentence you will hand down.”
He lastly said he is “truly sorry” for violating Ohtani’s trust in him.
Defense, government make case for sentence
Mizuhara pleaded guilty last year to one count of bank fraud, which carries a maximum of 30 years in prison, and one count of subscribing to a false tax return, which carries up to three years in prison. A sentence of 48 months was recommended by the probation officer.
Mizuhara’s attorney asked the judge to impose an 18-month sentence, arguing in a memorandum that the interpreter was devoted to his work for Ohtani but suffers from a “longstanding gambling addiction, which was uniquely exacerbated by his grueling work and exposure to high-stakes bookmakers in the world of professional athletes.”
Mizuhara “made a terrible mistake as a result of his serious gambling addiction, an anomaly in an otherwise law-abiding life in which he was dedicated to his career as an interpreter for Mr. Ohtani and other baseball players,” his attorney, Michael Freedman, wrote.
The defense attorney also said Mizuhara’s reputation here and in Japan has been “irretrievably stained” and that he “will continue to suffer as a result of harm to his reputation and career in the global press and through certain deportation.”
Prosecutors, meanwhile, asked the court to impose a prison sentence of 57 months while disputing what they called “unsupported claims” by the defense on the extent of Mizuhara’s gambling problem and the financial problems he had said led him to Bowyer’s illegal sports betting business.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Mitchell wrote in a response to the defense’s sentencing filings that the government could find no proof of a long-standing gambling addiction, and that Mizuhara did not have “such a ‘tremendous debt’ that it forced him to steal millions of dollars from Mr. Ohtani, as he claims.”
Mitchell also questioned whether Mizuhara is “truly remorseful or whether they are just sorry they were caught” and highlighted portions of Mizuhara’s letter to the judge, in which he detailed his offseason duties for Ohtani.
“The government does not question defendant’s work ethic, but only his characterization of the work and his true intention,” Mitchell wrote. “Instead of using this opportunity to apologize and show true remorse, he has used it, in a public filing, to complain about his work and Mr. Ohtani.”
In addition to the prison sentence, the government asked for three years of supervised release, restitution of $16,975,010 to Ohtani and $1,149,400 to the IRS.
Sentencing comes nearly year after firing Mizuhara worked with the Angels as Ohtani’s interpreter and then in the same capacity with the Dodgers, until the team fired him nearly a year ago, in March 2024, after the gambling controversy surfaced.
Ohtani addressed the scandal at the time during a press briefing, saying in a prepared statement through an interpreter, “I am very saddened and shocked that someone who I trusted has done this.”
Mizuhara pleaded guilty to the federal charges in June 2024.
According to the plea agreement, from November 2021 to March 2024, Mizuhara transferred nearly $17 million from the account to associates of the bookmaker in more than 40 wires without Ohtani’s permission.
Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers prior to last year, the richest deal in sports history.
Bowyer pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges for running an illegal gambling business that took unlawful sports bets from hundreds of customers, including Mizuhara, the Department of Justice said. He is scheduled to be sentenced in April.
Mizuhara also admitted in the plea agreement to falsely claiming that his total taxable income for 2022 was $136,865 when, in fact, he failed to report an additional $4.1 million in income.
“The source of the unreported income was from his scheme to defraud the bank,” the DOJ said, noting that he owes approximately $1,149,400 in additional taxes for the tax year 2022, plus additional interest and penalties.
His sentencing has been postponed several times after the defense asked for more time to prepare and for a forensic psychologist to complete a report about Mizuhara’s gambling.
ABC News’ Vanessa Navarrete contributed to this report.
