On ‘Jimmy Kimmel,’ Patrick Mahomes talks Pokemon play, Andy Reid’s Rihanna threat
After the Chiefs won Super Bowl LVII, quarterback Patrick Mahomes joined his teammates for a postgame party, made the trip to Disneyland and then buzzed over to visit “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
That didn’t leave much time for rest.
“I fell asleep in the car ride over from Disneyland to here,” Mahomes told Kimmel on Monday. “So that was my sleep.”
Despite being sleep-deprived, Mahomes was charming during a roughly 10-minute chat with Kimmel. Here are some of the highlights.
On what went through his head after reinjuring his ankle.
Mahomes: “Oh man, it was a bad moment because we were losing momentum in the game as well. So the pain shot up my entire leg and I knew it was going to hurt the rest of the way out. But luckily enough we had that long halftime in the Super Bowl and I was able to get some stuff done as far as mobility-wise to get myself ready to go in the second half. So definitely it was a scary moment for sure.”
Was there ever a thought he wouldn’t return to the game?
“Oh, I was coming back,” Mahomes said as the audience laughed. “You work all year to play in that game and I knew it was gonna hurt. I knew I was gonna hurt before the game even started and it was a little bit of just kind of get your mind right, let’s go out there and leave it on the field and see what happens.”
Did he see Rihanna’s halftime show?
Mahomes: “I didn’t but I heard it was great. But coach Andy Reid told us he said, ‘If you go out to watch the performance, just keep walking because you’re not playing the rest of the game.’”
How did his daughter, Sterling, like Disneyland?
“It took her a while to get comfortable,” Mahomes said. “And all of a sudden she wrote one ride and had a great time and it was like she wanted to ride every ride in the place. And I was like we have to get to Jimmy Kimmel and you’ll get that via watching me on stage.”
Kimmel asked: “Did that work?”
Mahomes with a chuckle: “ It did not.”
What did he do after the Super Bowl?
Mahomes: “They do a nice party for us at the hotel. The Chainsmokers came through DJ Khaled came through. You can’t beat that, man. It’s every genre of music you need right there and we had a little after-party after that as well. You just get the guys together man and you just celebrate and they actually get the plane ride home, and then I get one day off to get my rest and then parade on Wednesday. Chiefs Kingdom, I’m ready to see you there.”
Who is the Most Valuable Partier on the Chiefs?
“That’s the easiest,” Mahomes said. “Travis Kelce. Everybody knows that.”
Kimmel showed a clip of Kelce telling Chiefs fans, “You’ve got to fight for your right to party.”
Mahomes quipped: “I mean, Travis Kelce must do a lot of fighting because he’s always partying.”
On the mini-Snow Globe play at the Super Bowl.
“We worked on that play for so long!” Mahomes said. “We try to disguise it with all that different stuff happening before the snap, then I saw 22 point directly at the guy I was going to throw it to. I don’t know if I like my lineman matched up on the DB. Man, it was the worst.”
What’s the name of the play?
Mahomes: “So (offensive lineman Andrew) Wiley, who was the guy we were trying to get the ball to is a big Pokemon collector. And so it was a Pikachu formation and it was called Gotta Catch ‘Em All.”
Does Mahomes realize how much kids love him? Why does he think that’s so?
“Yeah, cause I go out there and have fun. I enjoy it,” he said. “I think that’s the biggest thing is go out there and you play the game, a kids game. We’re so lucky to be on this platform. To be able to go out there and play and make all this money and do all this stuff and be here with you and it all comes from a kids game so why not go and enjoy every single smiling.”
Kimmel compared Mahomes to Magic Johnson.
Mahomes said: “That’s a great person to be compared with, one of the all-time greats of any sport and he did it the right way. And I want to try to do whatever I can to leave my mark in this game more than winning games, but with the way I played it.”
This story was originally published February 14, 2023 at 12:01 PM.
