Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK
Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval pokes fun at himself announcing the Bengals-Chiefs Week 17 game
Aftab Pureval, the mayor of Cincinnati, got himself into a little hot water in the buildup to last year’s AFC Championship Game.
He took a much more muted approach when announcing the rematch, set for Week 17 between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs. The game will take place at 4:25 p.m. ET, on New Year’s Eve. The Chiefs opened as 3.5-point favorites at DraftKings Sportsbook.
Prior to the AFC Championship Game, Pureval turned the trash-talking dial up to 11 when he released this video, which featured a proclamation calling Arrowhead Stadium “Burrowhead Stadium,” and asking Joe Burrow to take a paternity test to determine if he is indeed Patrick Mahomes’s father:
Of course, that did not end well for the Bengals, and Pureval. When the Chiefs won the AFC Championship Game, Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce had some “wise words” for the Cincinnati mayor:
So when it came time for Pureval to announce the rematch, he was rather … subdued:
Perhaps the best part of this video? The person recording the statement. That is none other than new Bengals offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr., who was part of this game a season ago.
On the Kansas City sideline.
We’ll see if things remain subdued in the days leading up to this rematch.
