Fretting Mahomes’ rapid return? Don’t. All logic says Chiefs wouldn’t put him at risk
A mere 22 days after Patrick Mahomes lay on the field in Denver, seeing “my kneecap a little out of place,” not wanting to move and momentarily fearing the worst as Chiefs fans convulsed, coach Andy Reid on Friday announced that (barring any setbacks) Mahomes will play Sunday at Tennessee.
Maybe the timetable wasn’t so surprising amid the visible stages of Mahomes’ rehabilitation.
That started almost instantly with the dislocated kneecap being “reduced” (aka, snapped back into place) as Mahomes grimaced … then walked into the locker room and wanted to return that night after being X-rayed.
He practiced on a limited basis the following week and looked pretty mobile and nimble on the field before the Chiefs’ last game, against Minnesota — not to mention at game’s end, when he hurried onto the field to congratulate Harrison Butker on his game-winning field goal before wisely realizing the “whole team (was) coming behind him” and that he’d best run away lest he end up on the bottom of a dogpile.
Then Mahomes was full-go this past week, suggesting his return was imminent.
Still, the much-awaited announcement was cause for celebration, if not jubilation, among Chiefs fans, that rare sort of good news that can lift a city. It’s rousing, inspiring stuff, really.
Who wouldn’t be thrilled about the return of the reigning NFL Most Valuable Player, a young man who has changed perceptions of the very essence of a franchise seeking its first Super Bowl in half a century?
Unless, that is, you’re a worrier about your warriors and found yourself wondering how much more healthy he’d be if his return was further delayed.
Sitting him, say, another two games and through the ensuing bye week would make for a grand re-entry Dec. 1 at home against Oakland. Especially with the Chiefs (6-3) atop the AFC West, backup Matt Moore playing well and left tackle Eric Fisher still out with a groin injury and right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif questionable with an ankle injury.
But the Chiefs aren’t flinching, and Mahomes is making like Mad magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman: “What, me worry?”
While acknowledging that the nature of his injury is such that it can be prone to further damage (“a tad bit higher than the regular person’s,” he said) until it’s surgically repaired, Mahomes added, “Whenever you’re on that football field, there’s always a chance of injury.”
As much as we want to insulate him in bubble wrap, then maybe dip him in armor and cast a forcefield around him for good measure, Mahomes is right.
And as much as paranoia runs deep, consider this:
No one knows more about the specifics of all this than the Chiefs’ medical personnel, Reid and general manager Brett Veach, who conferred on the field before Reid spoke Friday even as Mahomes was taking extra reps with receiver Tyreek Hill.
No one is more invested (soon to be literally, with a groundbreaking contract looming after this season) in the long-term health and success of Mahomes.
He’s part golden goose, part unicorn, a generational talent who elevates everyone around him and is the emerging face of the NFL. They know you don’t, can’t, take unnecessary risks here.
Moreover, this administration’s track record is one of caution, not recklessness, when it comes to any player.
Reid will tell you that such decisions are in the hands of medical personnel. And they are all the more incentivized to first do no harm when it comes to Mahomes.
We’re a long way from the stone age of football and the sort of thing that happened the last time the Chiefs went to the Super Bowl: When quarterback Len Dawson suffered a torn MCL in Boston during the second week of the season, two doctors recommended surgery that would have ended his season.
But coach Hank Stram dissuaded Dawson from surgery as he sought a doctor who would give the opinion Stram wanted to hear. And he got it when the St. Louis (football) Cardinals’ team physician, Fred Reynolds, came across the state and examined Dawson on Stram’s desk and declared the injury would likely heal with rest and that Dawson could play again in six weeks.
With a caveat, according to Michael MacCambridge’s new book, ’69 Chiefs: A Team, A Season And The Birth of Modern Kansas City:
“There is no doubt whatsoever that surgery would be the safest and most sensible thing to do,” Reynolds said. “But I also understand that you’re a football player, and if you were to be operated on that would finish the season for you.”
As medicine has evolved, so have NFL media practices. We’re not privy to such conversations or details just now.
So the fretful can only take it on logic and faith that the Chiefs know exactly what they’re doing here with Mahomes, who reports no setbacks and expects that even the brace he’ll be wearing is only temporary.
Everyone heals differently, and Mahomes clearly has a high pain threshold as well as the tolerance, even zeal, for doing the hard work to get back to this point — to the point where in practice this week “we put me on the run,” he said. He was able to throw across his body and “did all the stuff that I’ve grown to do” with no pain.
With the consultation of three doctors, Mahomes said, a plan was hatched for how to attack “every single day.” No doubt, his every step was measured and scrutinized as the focus was on the balance between “not doing too much but at the same time building as much as I can,” he said.
“It’s helped me recover in a real quick manner,” he said Friday.
So now here we are, suddenly moving from waiting to exhale to breathless anticipation.
With every reason to believe this timing is good and right … even if some of us can’t help gritting our teeth a little, too.
This story was originally published November 8, 2019 at 5:28 PM.