PHOENIX — It was proper earlier than halftime of Sunday’s Tremendous Bowl, and Kansas Metropolis 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, informed Mahomes’s backup, Chad Henne, to begin warming up.
At halftime, Mahomes needed to deal with his teammates earlier than he acquired therapy. He was not pleased about how subdued they had been, and in a fiery speech informed them to select up their vitality and be themselves.
His ankle?
“We put new tape on there and did some motion to get some mobility in it,” Mahomes stated Monday. “It was one thing that I used to be going to play by.”
In opposition to 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 Metropolis to a victory, however he was clearly hobbled in opposition to the Cincinnati Bengals within the A.F.C. Championship sport.
What to Know About Tremendous Bowl LVII
Kansas Metropolis’s down-to-the-wire victory over Philadelphia gave the staff its second title in 4 seasons.
This time, Reid determined to not argue together with his quarterback.
“He grew up in a locker room,” Reid stated. “He’s seen the greats, and he strives to be the best. With out saying something, that’s the best way he works. He needs to be the best participant ever. That’s what he needs to do, and that’s the best way he goes about his enterprise.”
Reid appreciated that Mahomes got here out for the second half with goal, going 13 of 14 passing for 93 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-35 Tremendous Bowl victory. However he stated his play alone was not what made him a terrific quarterback.
“When it’s time for the blokes round him to lift their sport, he helps them with that,” Reid stated. “The nice quarterbacks make all people round him higher, together with the top coach, so he’s accomplished a heck of a job.”
Suppose Willis Reed stiff-legging it out for Recreation 7 of the 1970 N.B.A. Finals regardless of a torn muscle in his proper thigh. Or Michael Jordan in Recreation 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 Tremendous Bowls and was named the Most Beneficial Participant in each. Mahomes was named the NFL’s M.V.P. for a second time this season. He has been All-Professional thrice and chosen for 5 Professional Bowls. Twice, he has led the league in touchdowns, and he set a document of 5,614 passing, dashing and receiving yards in a season.
“M-V-Pat,” Travis Kelce, one in every of his favourite targets, has topped him, with good purpose: “He’s going to be one of the best to ever do it when it’s all stated and accomplished and is one of the best to do it proper now.”
Mahomes certainly grew up in a locker room, shadowing his father, Pat, in Main League Baseball clubhouses all through his 11-year profession as a pitcher. He’s a fitness center rat who understands the dynamics of a neighborhood of athletes and is aware of chemistry is the distinction between good and nice.
Instantly after returning to the locker room after the victory, Mahomes, nonetheless in his pads, spent almost 10 minutes shaking fingers and hugging each single teammate and coach.
He was extra pissed off than offended together with his teammates at halftime — the Eagles had successfully stored the ball out of his fingers within the first half, gobbling up greater than 21 minutes, or two thirds, of the clock.
“We simply challenged one another, man, to depart every part on the market, and I don’t wish to say we performed tight within the first half, however you didn’t see that very same pleasure that we play with,” Mahomes stated. “And I needed guys to simply know that every part we labored for is for this second.”
They listened, scoring 24 second-half factors.
Mahomes continues to be younger and hardly completed. His second Tremendous 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.
However he has set his sights on maybe the best of all time, the lately retired Tom Brady.
“It’s going to be robust,” he informed reporters of catching Brady. “I imply, seven Tremendous Bowl victories, 10 Tremendous Bowls. There’s a purpose why he’s up to now forward of all people else. It’s laborious to do, however I’ll do my finest to chase it.”
Neither his ankle nor complacency goes to gradual his quest to be the best.
“We’ll proceed to rehab, proceed the therapy that we had been doing, and simply give it some relaxation. I believe one of the best factor for it’ll be relaxation,” Mahomes stated. “One factor which may take a success is my golf sport.”
