A conspiracy I've seen gaining steam is that Mahomes got concussed a couple minutes into the Super Bowl and they let him play it out. It didn't show on the TV copy, but did on replay. I first saw it Sunday night in a sped up gif where it looked worse than it did at real speed. Sorry for the shit video, it was the first one I found.
mutthomes concussion.mp4
We've all seen QBs get pulled for hits like that. Some come back in, others don't. Nobody remarked on the hit or him getting evaluated. "This was just an excuse to explain his poor performance, cope harder." was my first thought. I didn't think of it again until I saw a thread that highlighted how he wears his helmet. He wears it really high on top of his hair. It's been remarked on for years.
View attachment 6981220
compare to this example from Hurts
View attachment 6981225
There are league regs about how to wear a helmet. AJ Hawk said the league threatened to fine him because he liked to wear it loose. He got a letter that partway through a season which explained his helmet has come off in game the same number of times as everyone else in the league combined.
I can't find it now, but there was a micced up clip where Reid is obviously questioning his performance and he says something to the effect of "I'm seeing it, I'm just not pulling the trigger." If you watch film breakdowns there various times he had guys open and didn't see it, did see it and chose not to make a throw he normally would have, or didn't see something like DeJean on the pick 6. The D line got great pressure on him, but it's not like there was a 100% pressure rate on his dropbacks.
He was certainly frazzled more than his shitty haircut by the defense's scheme and execution, but was it something more? Would they really pull the face of the League in the Super Bowl they were supposed to make history in?