‘I got my swagger back’: A 2014 video sparked Patrick Mahomes’ breakout in Chiefs’ win
A star quarterback played like a star quarterback again.
The creativity. The emotion. The rhythm. Heck, even the post-game carefree replies in a news conference. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes busted through the first slump of his career as only he knows how.
He eclipsed 400 yards. He threw five touchdowns. He actually called a play during a timeout that led to one of them.
But the night Patrick Mahomes returned to being Patrick Mahomes actually started with a video clip.
From way back in 2014.
Early this week as they were watching film, practice squad quarterback Shane Buechele tapped Mahomes to show him a video. In the clip from a local news broadcast in Michigan, a high school player looks directly into the camera while being interviewed after a victory and says, “I think I got my swagger back.”
The ensuing comedic stutter prompted the clip to go viral.
Its recent re-circulation found its way into the Chiefs locker room seven years later.
“That was something that was kind of my motto this week,” Mahomes said, adding, “I was like, man, that’s what we’re going to do on Sunday.”
The swagger is back, at least for one night in Las Vegas, with a prime-time TV audience to witness it. The former MVP looks like a future MVP again, like the quarterback who has twice reached Super Bowls and could lead this team to another. He settled for the underneath throws. He squeezed others into tight windows. He even finally got a bit of luck on a deep ball to Darrel Williams.
While the slump has been real but perhaps slightly overblown, it’s even been recognized inside Chiefs walls. Earlier this past week, Mike Frazier, the team’s statistical analysis coordinator researched dips in production over the career of the league’s best quarterbacks.
He determined, coach Andy Reid relayed, that “Pat’s lasted longer than any quarterback in the history of the game without a slump.”
The comment is noteworthy because of its conclusion but also because of its acknowledgment that, no, Mahomes wasn’t playing great football. It was more than bad luck. More than a run of dropped passes.
For a month he’s been, well, human.
“It’s going to happen,” Reid said. “There’s going to be a little something that doesn’t go your way. And it’s important that you power through it, stay confident and keep firing. That’s how he’s wired. And you knew he was going to get through the ups and downs just by the way he handles himself.”
Reid has elaborated on that “wiring” in the past. Mahomes, he said, doesn’t ignore his flaws. He wants to talk about them. Wants to dissect them.
He’s been going through it, and until this point, he’s never really gone through it at this level. In the previous three weeks, he’s been up front and honest about that, often even absorbing too much of the blame, at least publicly.
Behind the scenes, he hasn’t changed his demeanor, his teammates insist.
“No, never, never never,” said wide receiver Tyreek Hill, on the receiving end of two of Mahomes’ touchdowns. “Pat’s still the same guy. Cocky — which is good.”
While Mahomes said he noticed in pregame the Chiefs could have the type of output they did Sunday — their first 500-yard game of the season — for the rest of us, his confidence became evident in moments along the way.
A left-handed pass on the opening drive. A 40-yard throw across his body ... to a running back.
And a jaunt across the Allegiant Stadium field. After a fourth-down touchdown pass to tight end Noah Gray in the third quarter, Mahomes skipped 40 yards to the edge of the Raiders’ midfield logo. He yelled. He flexed. He unleashed all of the emotions of the past month.
Swagger.
A couple hours later, as he was heading back to the locker room, his tight end was on TV, imitating the swagger video that had filtered into the Chiefs locker room. I think I got my swagger back, Travis Kelce said.
“I think the whole team got that swag back,” Mahomes said. “We’re going to try to keep that thing rolling.”
This story was originally published November 15, 2021 at 12:40 AM.