How Patrick Mahomes Fired Up His Teammates Throughout Tremendous Bowl Halftime

PHOENIX — It was proper earlier than halftime of Sunday’s Tremendous Bowl, and Kansas Metropolis trailed Philadelphia, 21-14, when Eagles’ linebacker T.J. Edwards chased down Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and landed on his already-tender ankle.

Mahomes labored to stand up. When he did, he tilted his head again in a grimace after which skipped gingerly towards the sideline. His coach, Andy Reid, informed Mahomes’s backup, Chad Henne, to start out warming up.

At halftime, Mahomes wished to handle his teammates earlier than he received therapy. He was not comfortable about how subdued they had been, and in a fiery speech informed them to choose up their power and be themselves.

His ankle?

“We put new tape on there and did some motion to get some mobility in it,” Mahomes mentioned Monday. “It was one thing that I used to be going to play by means of.”

Towards Jacksonville 4 weeks in the past, Mahomes suffered a high-ankle sprain that despatched him to the locker room for an X-ray. Reid was reluctant to place him again within the sport. Mahomes returned anyway and helped Kansas Metropolis to a victory, however he was clearly hobbled in opposition to the Cincinnati Bengals within the A.F.C. Championship sport.

This time, Reid determined to not argue together with his quarterback.

“He grew up in a locker room,” Reid mentioned. “He’s seen the greats, and he strives to be the best. With out saying something, that’s the best way he works. He needs to be the best participant ever. That’s what he needs to do, and that’s the best way he goes about his enterprise.”

Reid appreciated that Mahomes got here out for the second half with objective, going 13 of 14 passing for 93 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-35 Tremendous Bowl victory. However he mentioned his play alone was not what made him an incredible quarterback.

“When it’s time for the fellows round him to lift their sport, he helps them with that,” Reid mentioned. “The good quarterbacks make everyone round him higher, together with the top coach, so he’s performed a heck of a job.”

Assume Willis Reed stiff-legging it out for Sport 7 of the 1970 N.B.A. Finals regardless of a torn muscle in his proper thigh. Or Michael Jordan in Sport 5 of the 1997 Finals withered by the flu however nonetheless pouring in 38 factors to beat the Utah Jazz.

Mahomes’s efficiency on a young ankle all through the playoffs is maybe extra spectacular than the gaudy statistics he has put up in his first 5 years as a starter.

At simply 27, he has gained two Tremendous Bowls and was named the Most Helpful Participant in each. Mahomes was named the NFL’s M.V.P. for a second time this season. He has been All-Professional 3 times and chosen for 5 Professional Bowls. Twice, he has led the league in touchdowns, and he set a document of 5,614 passing, speeding and receiving yards in a season.

“M-V-Pat,” Travis Kelce, one in every of his favourite targets, has topped him, with good purpose: “He’s going to be the very best to ever do it when it’s all mentioned and performed and is the very best to do it proper now.”

Mahomes certainly grew up in a locker room, shadowing his father, Pat, in Main League Baseball clubhouses all through his 11-year profession as a pitcher. He’s a health club rat who understands the dynamics of a group of athletes and is aware of chemistry is the distinction between good and nice.

Instantly after returning to the locker room after the victory, Mahomes, nonetheless in his pads, spent almost 10 minutes shaking arms and hugging each single teammate and coach.

He was extra pissed off than offended together with his teammates at halftime — the Eagles had successfully saved the ball out of his arms within the first half, gobbling up greater than 21 minutes, or two thirds, of the clock.

“We simply challenged one another, man, to go away all the things on the market, and I don’t wish to say we performed tight within the first half, however you didn’t see that very same pleasure that we play with,” Mahomes mentioned. “And I wished guys to simply know that all the things we labored for is for this second.”

They listened, scoring 24 second-half factors.

Mahomes remains to be younger and hardly completed. His second Tremendous Bowl championship places him alongside a who’s who of N.F.L. quarterbacks — Jim Plunkett, Bart Starr, Bob Griese, Eli Manning, Roger Staubach and Ben Roethlisberger.

However he has set his sights on maybe the best of all time, the lately retired Tom Brady.

“It’s going to be robust,” he informed reporters of catching Brady. “I imply, seven Tremendous Bowl victories, 10 Tremendous Bowls. There’s a purpose why he’s thus far forward of everyone else. It’s exhausting to do, however I’ll do my finest to chase it.”

Neither his ankle nor complacency goes to sluggish his quest to be the best.

“We’ll proceed to rehab, proceed the therapy that we had been doing, and simply give it some relaxation. I believe the very best factor for it’s going to be relaxation,” Mahomes mentioned. “One factor that may take successful is my golf sport.”