Jim Nantz: Other fans may not like it, but Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes are must-see TV

Seven months from now you’ll be hearing the song “I’ll be home for Christmas,” and at that time, CBS Sports broadcaster Jim Nantz will be calling Kansas City his home.

While on “The Rich Eisen Show,” Nantz was asked what Chiefs games he’d likely call in the 2023 season. There are five:

• Chiefs at Vikings in Week 5

• Chargers at Chiefs in Week 7

• Bills at Chiefs in Week 14

• Raiders at Chiefs in Week 16

• Bengals at Chiefs in Week 17

“In the month of December, (I’m) basically going to live in KC,” Nantz said. “I’ve got Buffalo at KC Week 14. Vegas at KC on Christmas Day. Cincinnati at KC on New Year’s Eve. So those are blockbuster games. Buffalo and Cincinnati, especially, those two matchups against KC, you’re talking in the Cincinnati case, the last two AFC Championship matchups, came down to a field goal in each case.

“And then of course, Buffalo at Kansas City with that epic divisional game of two seasons ago and a great regular-season game at Arrowhead last year. ... The Bills again come back to Arrowhead and that’s just a blockbuster for us. Those were games one and two I believe on our hit list when we went in and talked to the league and we got ‘em.”

CBS Sports will air Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas in February, and Eisen noted that means Nantz could end up working as many as four Chiefs playoff games, too.

Nantz called the Chiefs the flagship team of CBS Sports.

“This is what it used to be like, getting back to how we started back in the (Tom) Brady/(Bill) Belichick days,” Nantz sad. “Phil (Simms) and I would do eight or nine Patriot games a year, riding them through the playoffs and the regular season. So they were the flagship team of the network at that time, and rightfully so with KC is in this era.”

Much can change with network plans, but Nantz and broadcast partner Tony Romo likely will call more Chiefs games than any other team in the 2023 season.

Nantz said while some people may not want to see so much of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, he’s must-see TV right now.

“People sometimes grow weary or tired of winners and the story repeating itself, but it’s kind of like Tiger (Woods) back in his heyday,” Nantz said. “You may root for him. A lot of people did. You may not root for him. And there were those out there that weren’t rooting for him because they just grew tired of watching him play all the time: ‘Why are you guys showing him so much?’

“But the truth is everybody wants to know what he’s doing at all times. And that pertains to Mahomes. You want to know what he’s doing. And he’s got three Super Bowl appearances. He’s got two rings. Yeah, I mean, it’s hard to handicap (how many more Super Bowls the Chiefs will win) when you’re talking about a player still in his 20s and you’ve got so much more talent out there.”

Eisen added this nugget: “It’s interesting that you equated Mahomes to Tiger because they both wear red on victory Sundays, right?”

Here is Nantz talking about Mahomes and the Chiefs.