Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes on how Tom Brady’s visit after AFC title game helped his career
Following The Match golf event on Wednesday, TNT’s Ernie Johnson had a special conversation with the four quarterbacks that focused on football.
Johnson asked Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Bills’ Josh Allen about Kansas City’s bonkers 42-36 overtime win over Buffalo in an AFC Divisional playoff game. Allen talked about how much it meant for Mahomes to seek him out following the contest.
“(Mahomes) goes down in overtime he throws the winning touchdown to Travis (Kelce), goes and dabs Travis up and he runs straight to me and finds me and we kind of had like a little embrace,” Allen said. “I just thought, especially in that moment for him to have the respect and the thought process of just winning a game, a crazy game, and to go congratulate me whatever it was, that was awesome.”
Mahomes said he was paying it forward because Tom Brady came to the Chiefs’ locker room after the Patriots beat Kansas City 37-31 in overtime in the AFC Championship Game following the 2018 season.
That talk from Brady had a big impact on Mahomes.
“The biggest thing he said is you’re doing it the right way. It wasn’t like he said anything about how I was playing the game,” Mahomes recalled. “It wasn’t about how I was in the pocket, the fundamentals. He said,’ Hey, you’re doing it the right way. Just keep it up.’ And so that for me showed that that hard work I’d been putting in, it was the right thing. I need to keep doing it. Do more of it.”
Johnson asked what Mahomes was thinking when he heard Brady’s advice.
Mahomes reiterated how the talk helped his career because Brady’s affirmation let Mahomes know he didn’t need to change the way he was doing things. He just needed to get back to work.
“It was a surreal feeling, obviously, because it’s him, I watched him growing up, and he’s been winning the Super Bowl since I can remember,” Mahomes said. “But I think obviously I’m down because I just lost and didn’t make it to the Super Bowl my first year starting, so this was the end of what I thought was a chance to go out there and get a ring.
“But then to hear that, I think at first I kind of took it in, and then a couple days later it kind of hit me. It was like, ‘Hey, you need to get back out here. You’re doing it the right way. And now you gotta keep doing it.’”
This story was originally published June 2, 2022 at 10:00 AM.
