- The Kansas City Chiefs put up 44 points in a win against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
- After the game, wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster credited the video game “Call of Duty” for the offense’s solid rhythm.
- Smith-Schuster said that he had teamed up with Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling to play “Warzone” and went on a winning streak together.
The Kansas City Chiefs were firing on all cylinders Sunday, beating down the San Francisco 49ers on the road to the tune of a 44-23 victory.
Patrick Mahomes made the most of his new weapons in the receiving corps, with JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling both going off for more than 100 yards receiving.
After the game, Smith-Schuster credited an unlikely source for the offense’s tight rhythm: Call of Duty.
According to Smith-Schuster, he, Mahomes, MVS, and tight end Travis Kelce had teamed up during the week to play “Warzone” together online.
For those whose gaming days are behind them, “Warzone” is an online game somewhat akin to “Fortnite” that puts 16 teams of four on a map to battle until just one team remains.
“I’m going to tell you what got us the chemistry that we needed this game,” Smith-Schuster told reporters after the win. “I think it was Friday night. It was me, Pat, Travis and MVS. We were playing ‘Call of Duty’ together. We were playing ‘Warzone.’ We played three games — we won three games back-to-back.
“We got off and were like, ‘Damn,'” said Smith-Schuster, who has moonlighted as an esports player and has more than 250,000 followers on Twitch, a popular streaming platform for gamers. “It’s really hard to win a game in ‘Warzone.’ You could just tell that the communication between all of us, and the chemistry, it was like we were in a game. ‘He’s right there! He’s above you! He’s right here!’ It kind of just led into this game, and it showed on the field.”
Smith-Schuster, somewhat adorably, explained how the game worked to reporters, and addressed how it helped the foursome get some valuable time communicating.
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Mahomes admitted that while he is not the great gamer that Smith-Schuster is, he felt good about their off-field bonding.
“It’s cool when you get away from the facility,” Mahomes said. “You’re doing kid-like things and you’re on the headset — talking, joking around, and talking about the week. It gets your mind off of football. It’s about building those relationships. So it’s definitely cool to kind of see these guys — even if it’s on the game — outside of the facility.”
Given the success the Chiefs have had with adding a bit of gaming to their weekly routine, Kyler Murray and the Cardinals might want to look into a similar team activity in the near future.