How Patrick Mahomes Fired Up His Teammates During Super Bowl Halftime

PHOENIX — It was proper earlier than halftime of Sunday’s Super Bowl, and Kansas City trailed Philadelphia, 21-14, when Eagles’ linebacker T.J. Edwards chased down Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and landed on his already-tender ankle.

Mahomes labored to rise up. When he did, he tilted his head again in a grimace after which skipped gingerly towards the sideline. His coach, Andy Reid, instructed Mahomes’s backup, Chad Henne, to start out warming up.

At halftime, Mahomes needed to deal with his teammates earlier than he received therapy. He was not pleased about how subdued they had been, and in a fiery speech instructed them to choose up their power and be themselves.

His ankle?

“We put new tape on there and did some movement to get some mobility in it,” Mahomes stated Monday. “It was something that I was going to play through.”

Against Jacksonville 4 weeks in the past, Mahomes suffered a high-ankle sprain that despatched him to the locker room for an X-ray. Reid was reluctant to place him again within the sport. Mahomes returned anyway and helped Kansas City to a victory, however he was clearly hobbled in opposition to the Cincinnati Bengals within the A.F.C. Championship sport.

This time, Reid determined to not argue along with his quarterback.

“He grew up in a locker room,” Reid stated. “He’s seen the greats, and he strives to be the greatest. Without saying anything, that’s the way he works. He wants to be the greatest player ever. That’s what he wants to do, and that’s the way he goes about his business.”

Reid appreciated that Mahomes got here out for the second half with objective, going 13 of 14 passing for 93 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-35 Super Bowl victory. But he stated his play alone was not what made him an incredible quarterback.

“When it’s time for the guys around him to raise their game, he helps them with that,” Reid stated. “The great quarterbacks make everybody around him better, including the head coach, so he’s done a heck of a job.”

Think Willis Reed stiff-legging it out for Game 7 of the 1970 N.B.A. Finals regardless of a torn muscle in his proper thigh. Or Michael Jordan in Game 5 of the 1997 Finals withered by the flu however nonetheless pouring in 38 factors to beat the Utah Jazz.

Mahomes’s efficiency on a young ankle all through the playoffs is probably extra spectacular than the gaudy statistics he has put up in his first 5 years as a starter.

At simply 27, he has gained two Super Bowls and was named the Most Valuable Player in each. Mahomes was named the NFL’s M.V.P. for a second time this season. He has been All-Pro 3 times and chosen for 5 Pro Bowls. Twice, he has led the league in touchdowns, and he set a document of 5,614 passing, speeding and receiving yards in a season.

“M-V-Pat,” Travis Kelce, one in every of his favourite targets, has topped him, with good motive: “He’s going to be the best to ever do it when it’s all said and done and is the best to do it right now.”

Mahomes certainly grew up in a locker room, shadowing his father, Pat, in Major League Baseball clubhouses all through his 11-year profession as a pitcher. He is a fitness center rat who understands the dynamics of a group of athletes and is aware of chemistry is the distinction between good and nice.

Immediately after returning to the locker room after the victory, Mahomes, nonetheless in his pads, spent practically 10 minutes shaking palms and hugging each single teammate and coach.

He was extra pissed off than offended along with his teammates at halftime — the Eagles had successfully stored the ball out of his palms within the first half, gobbling up greater than 21 minutes, or two thirds, of the clock.

“We just challenged each other, man, to leave everything out there, and I don’t want to say we played tight in the first half, but you didn’t see that same joy that we play with,” Mahomes stated. “And I wanted guys to just know that everything we worked for is for this moment.”

They listened, scoring 24 second-half factors.

Mahomes continues to be younger and hardly completed. His second Super Bowl championship places him alongside a who’s who of N.F.L. quarterbacks — Jim Plunkett, Bart Starr, Bob Griese, Eli Manning, Roger Staubach and Ben Roethlisberger.

But he has set his sights on maybe the best of all time, the lately retired Tom Brady.

“It’s going to be tough,” he instructed reporters of catching Brady. “I mean, seven Super Bowl victories, 10 Super Bowls. There’s a reason why he’s so far ahead of everybody else. It’s hard to do, but I’ll do my best to chase it.”

Neither his ankle nor complacency goes to gradual his quest to be the best.

“We’ll continue to rehab, continue the treatment that we were doing, and just give it some rest. I think the best thing for it is going to be rest,” Mahomes stated. “One thing that might take a hit is my golf game.”