Mahomes: Reid threatened to bench anyone who watched Rihanna perform

Kansas City Chiefs players hoping to catch a glimpse of Rihanna's Super Bowl LVII halftime performance had their plans shut down by head coach Andy Reid.

Quarterback Patrick Mahomes revealed Monday that Reid warned Chiefs players they'd be benched if they watched Rihanna perform.

"He said, 'If you go out to watch the performance, just keep walking, 'cause you're not playing the rest of the game,'" Mahomes said on "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

The Chiefs entered halftime trailing the Philadelphia Eagles 24-14 but came back to win 38-35 and capture their third Super Bowl title.

Mahomes aggravated his right ankle injury in the second quarter but said he had no doubt he'd return for the second half.

"You work all year to play in that game, and I knew (my ankle) was gonna hurt," he said. "I knew I was gonna hurt before the game even started, and it was a little bit of, 'Just get your mind right, let's go out there and leave it all on the field and see what happens.'"

An average of 113 million viewers tuned in to watch Super Bowl LVII, making it the third-most-watched U.S. TV show ever.

Rihanna's performance, meanwhile, was the second-most-watched Super Bowl halftime show ever with an average of 118.7 million viewers. It was the singer's first live performance since 2018.