Last year, Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Kadarius Toney was a star in his team’s Super Bowl victory.
This year, with his star in eclipse, he expected to do nothing more than watch the Chiefs as they take on the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII, according to ESPN, which cited a league source it did not name.
Toney has not played for Kansas City since Week 15 of the season.
Toney was not listed on the injury report as the game approached.
𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚:
Kadarius Toney is not expected to play in the Super Bowl.End of an error. pic.twitter.com/NDf3HU4jXS
— NFL Notifications (@NFLNotify) February 11, 2024
“We’ll see,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said last week when asked about Toney, according to the Sporting News.
“We’ll just see whether he’s up or not,” he said, later adding, “He’s been working through some things, and he’ll be back out there.”
Although Toney has not made any news on the field, he made plenty off of it last month, according to Sports Illustrated.
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He was sidelined for the Jan. 28 AFC Championship game with what was reported to be a hip injury, but during an Instagram Live video said, “I’m not hurt, none of that. Hip, knee, nuh-uh.”
Toney’s anger and his language made it appear he was attacking the Chiefs, but he said he would never do such a thing.
Kadarius Toney says his vulgar Instagram rant about his injury status was aimed at Giants fans, not the Kansas City Chiefs
But Kadarius Toney is blaming his misstep on his ongoing feud with Giants fans, which has burned…
[ Source : nydailynews ]https://t.co/RLrGZEqv8y
— Harmony Abel (@HarmonyAbe71285) February 8, 2024
“I guess it got interrupted. So, it got a mixed message. I guess you could say then a lot of footage got chopped up and released. So, it made it like I was attacking the one [Chiefs] I love the most. I’d never attack the Chiefs, never say anything about the Chiefs. Who I was referring to was the Giants fans, people in my comments,” he said.
Writing on NBC, Mike Florio suggested that the Chiefs were hoping to quietly shelve Toney, whom Kansas City obtained from the New York Giants, who had soured on any hopes of Toney living up to his potential.
“The circumstances suggest that the strategy, if this was a low-key suspension, was to subtly nudge him away from the team for the rest of the year, and then to try to trade him in the offseason,” Florio wrote.
Chiefs WR Kadarius Toney is OUT today. Huge blow for the 49ers. It’ll be tough for them to overcome this one.
— Mile High Mario (@VetanzeTherapy) February 11, 2024
“Toney’s camp, which could have fought the move, likely would have been inclined to go along in order to get along, hopeful that silence and the passage of time might lay the foundation for Toney to get the second fresh start of his career. Even if Toney would have been in the right, the last thing he needs is to be involved in another controversy,” he wrote.
“Will someone else be sufficiently smitten by his skills to give him a shot? We’ll find out as soon as the middle of March,” he wrote.
