NASHVILLE, Tenn. — For the first time in his 7½-year NFL career, Kansas City Chiefs tackle Mitchell Schwartz watched from the sideline on Sunday during a game when his team’s offense was on the field.
“It was weird,” said Schwartz, who injured his knee in the second quarter of the Chiefs’ 35-32 loss to the Tennessee Titans. “I’ve never done that before. I knew something didn’t feel right, (but) nothing broken or anything like that.”
When he left for the sideline, Schwartz ended a streak of 7,894 consecutive snaps, the longest such current streak in the league.
Schwartz returned to the game in the third quarter and played the entire second half.
Schwartz began his career in 2012 and played his first four seasons with the Cleveland Browns. While there, Schwartz was a teammate of offensive tackle Joe Thomas, who amassed a streak of more than 10,000 consecutive snaps.
Schwartz has acknowledged how important the streak is to him. He asked to play in the final game of the 2017 season against the Denver Broncos even after the Chiefs had clinched the AFC West championship and were resting other key players.
“It was seven-and-a-half years running,” Schwartz said after Sunday’s game. “It was a pretty cool thing. Now I’m normal like everybody else. It is what it is.”