How Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes is handling ‘priceless’ feeling of parenthood
At one point during the Chiefs’ 33-29 rally over Cleveland on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium, Patrick Mahomes made a gesture to shush the crowd. You’ve doubtless seen it before, in one form or another.
But watching from above, the Chiefs quarterback’s fiancee, Brittany Matthews, figured there was a new purpose for it this time.
“I think he knows (7-month-old daughter Sterling) is trying to take a nap,” she wrote on Twitter.
Mahomes brought up that tidbit Wednesday, and, well, he didn’t say he didn’t do it for that reason. Which was probably smart, since maybe he had something to make up for: Chances are that with one play or another, he had helped stoke the crowd to a decibel level that, even through her ear-protection headphones, had disrupted Sterling’s routine.
Luckily for all concerned, though, she’s apparently inherited a helpful and underrated trait of her father — whom longtime trainer Bobby Stroupe once called “the most prolific sleeper in the world” and, in fact, a “sloth.”
“I don’t want to brag or anything, but she’s slept through the night literally, like, since she was 3 months old,” Mahomes said in an interview with The Star during training camp in August.
Fatherhood is part of so much that has changed for Mahomes since he arrived in Kansas City and not only reinvigorated the Chiefs but, in fact, revolutionized their place in the NFL and sports universe overall.
But the radical differences in his life extend well beyond being the catalyst for a franchise that hadn’t been to the Super Bowl in 50 years now seeking its third straight berth.
At a thumbnail glance, that includes being bestowed with a half-billion dollar contract; investing in Sporting KC and the Royals; becoming a voice for social justice; setting a wedding date with forever girlfriend Matthews (part-owner herself of the KC NWSL women’s soccer club) for Feb. 20, 2022; and otherwise living a life under the relentless glare and scrutiny that comes with being a global icon.
For all that, though, part of his ongoing charm is that from all apparent angles, not to mention within the Chiefs organization, he remains fundamentally unchanged and unspoiled himself. And that’s easy to track through how he engages with teammates and the public … and even in how consumed he remains with improving his already remarkable game.
Parenthood, though, must be the most profound of all these changes. And while Mahomes didn’t elaborate much on the day-to-day elements when we spoke about it recently, he offered a broad sense of this new love in his life.
“The fact that, like, every time you go home, even if you’re tired, even if you had a long day, you’re so excited to see her,” he said. “And to see how she’s already changing and how fast she’s growing. Already I want her to slow down …
“It’s priceless stuff and it’s something that definitely changes your life.”
And something that is adding to his charm in these first few months.
With that, of course, comes an entirely new set of challenges.
Or as Chiefs coach Andy Reid playfully put it a few weeks ago, “He’s had to learn to change a diaper; he’s had to learn how to hold a baby … It’s different than holding a football.”
More seriously, Reid noted how grounded the couple is, and how mature Mahomes is.
“He’s seen a lot in his short life, and I think he handles that well,” Reid said. “I just think this is kind of the next step.”
Through the Chiefs, Mahomes demurred on a request to speak with Matthews.
When Mahomes first publicly addressed the topic in April, about two months after she was born, he said Matthews was “kind of doing it all” and that he was “kind of like the cheerleader on the sideline, just asking her what I need to do.”
At the time, though, he also offered a hint of a shared philosophy in at least one element of parenting: that they planned to have her get out in the world with them.
But the reality is that her upbringing will be in a spotlight, so they have been strategizing about how to contend with that. It wasn’t until June, for instance, that they made pictures of Sterling public.
“We’ve shown her now more than we did when she was first born, just to kind of show all the cool things she’s doing,” Mahomes said, adding that it was “getting a little bit tiresome having to hide her all the time.”
Finding that balance will be complicated at times, to be sure, as they strive to find a way for her to “grow up as normal as possible,” he said.
Which will mean, in essence, creating a normal for her.
“She’ll know a different life than I did growing up and than other kids,” Mahomes said. “But we surround ourselves with a lot of great people that are really down to earth and that really just enjoy being around us more than the athlete of Patrick Mahomes.
“And so having people like that around us, I think, will kind of help her grow up and be the same way and enjoy the little things in life. Because that’s the stuff that really gets you to be who you are.”
Including big little things like Chiefs football games, which he figures is in hot competition with soccer for her favorite game.
On this round, anyway, he was able to recover from any disturbances in Sterling’s nap habits by the time he got home.
In her bedtime routine by then, he said, “I got to just kind of go in and give her a little kiss goodnight.”