Where the season started and where it ended for former Giants wide receiver Kadarius Toney had all the makings of a TikTok post.
Toney started the year in East Rutherford with the Giants before eventually being traded in the middle of the year. It ended with him scoring the go-ahead touchdown for the Kansas City Chiefs that put them ahead for the first time all game and then making a crucial 65-yard punt return to set up Skyy Moore’s TD in the Chiefs’ Super Bowl win over the Philadelphia Eagles.
The punt return was the longest in Super Bowl history as he took the ball all the way down to the Philadelphia 5-yard line.
“Right now, I’m just grateful man,” Toney told reporter after the game, according to NBC Sports. “You know, thankful for the organization for really accepting me and letting me be the player I can be. . . .The environment is just life-changing. You can just only imagine the coaches and the entire organization, just the energy you feel in the building day in and day out. It’s different. It makes you want to go out there and be the best player you can be.”
Toney had a minimal impact on the game up until that point and had been dealing with injury issues on and off since the Chiefs traded for him on Oct. 27. He made one catch in the AFC Championship game against the Cincinnati Bengals before he hurt his ankle.
Luckily for the Chiefs, he was able to recover in time to play on Sunday.
“It is the biggest game of my life,” Toney said. “It was, for real.”
Toney’s time with the Giants never quite lived up to expectations of what the organization had hoped for. He played in just 10 games for the Giants after being drafted 20th overall in the 2021 NFL draft.
Chiefs’ wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster seemed more than happy to take a shot at how the Giants handled Toney.
“That boy got here, and I don’t know what the Giants was doing with KT, but bro, he’s a dog,” Smith-Schuster said. “Brett Veach and Andy Reid, they know how to pick and choose who to go get for this team.”
