MAHOMES AND CHIEFS DESERVE ALL APPRECIATION AS THEY SEEK THREE STRAIGHT
Hard to believe anyone would slight an NFL franchise seeking back-to-back-to-back titles — four in six years — and those who wonder about the Ravens or Bills or Lions should start watching Saturday
What else is needed in a savage dynasty discussion? No quarterback has authored a greater start to his career. The coach might end up with the most all-time victories. Even a goofy hairdo hasn’t doomed a tight end who is still very much with Taylor Swift. The Kansas City Chiefs could win a fourth Super Bowl in six years, including three straight, which hasn’t happened in the NFL since Vince Lombardi commented in the mid-1960s, “Winners never quit, and quitters never win” — which means the same thing.
Already, Patrick Mahomes says his group is in D-territory. “Yeah, it’s the start of one. We’re not done,” he said. “We’re gonna keep this thing going.” Does anyone detect a team that will defeat the Chiefs? Baltimore lost last year and could fall again despite another immense regular season from Lamar Jackson. Buffalo lost and could fall again despite an MVP performance from Josh Allen. Philadelphia lost two years ago. Detroit?
Here is the pregame show you won’t see on Fox, CBS, NBC or ESPN. The Chiefs are two victories away — yes, I assume a healthy team beats the Houston Texans at home after a week off — from overtaking the New England Patriots. I say so because they have had no on-field or sexual scandals, unlike Bill Belichick and Spygate and Tom Brady and Deflategate and Bob Kraft and whatever gate is at Orchids of Asia Day Spa. Oh, we could mention the superfan bank robber who was sentenced to 17 years, but ChiefsAholic was in the exterior fray. They could keep winning more because Mahomes is just 29 and coach Andy Reid signed a $100 million contract that doesn’t expire until 2029.
What’s baffling about the Chiefs is that people think they are unappreciated. Anyone who doesn’t recognize their tenacity isn’t paying much attention to professional football, which plays a rigorous schedule of 17 games and demands more in January and February. It’s stunning to think Mahomes has won 80 percent of his games in a league that devours young quarterbacks. He has prevented the rest of the best, such as Jackson and Allen, from wearing even one championship ring. He has played 18 postseason games and lost only three — two to Brady, one to Joe Burrow. He is 15-1 when he throws one interception or fewer. This is madness that must make Shohei Ohtani say, “Oh, those six years in Anaheim.” And LeBron James say, “Why did I spend my first seven years in Cleveland?”
Only Mahomes fills himself with more anxiety after winning a championship. “Once you win the Super Bowl, even to another extreme, when you don’t win it, it sucks even more,” he said. “When you don’t win it now, it sucks because you know what it could be like.”
It explains why he is America’s most admired athlete. His commercials are endless. He makes fun of his “dad bod,” telling Netflix when he was handed cake on Christmas Day: “I’m watching my weight until the playoffs.” No one is certain how he eats Cool Ranch Doritos with Coors Light. It works.
“He’s unaffected by the pressure,” said Alex Smith, who started for the Chiefs when Mahomes was a rookie. “The pressure on these guys that have come up against him, it only mounts.”
The postseason is when he becomes a giant. He spends September through December grinding out victories, maintaining the psyche of his teammates. The Chiefs don’t always wow us with routs, winning 16 straight one-score games. He finished with career lows in passing yards, touchdowns and yards per attempt. Would they eventually go down? Wouldn’t an esteemed coordinator figure them out? Nah, they went 15-2 and entered this week with every player available. Don’t forget the 2024 playoffs, when Mahomes was unleashed and threw for 1,051 yards and six touchdowns with only one interception.
“I mean, it’s been a fun run up to this point. But we want to get to that ultimate goal,” he said. “We know it’s going to be challenging. So we have to just really focus on the day and try to win the game.”
The Texans? “This team is really motivated to go up there and play some good ball against a great Kansas City team that has been in these moments forever,” quarterback C.J. Stroud said. “It is going to take all of us and take a lot of execution to get that done, so we have to be on our A-game.”
A new president will be inaugurated Monday. Mahomes’ wife supported Donald Trump, while Swift supported Kamala Harris. No one knows what he thinks. He has managed to avoid wrongdoing, though he’s the most popular and accomplished player in the country’s dominant sport. He smiles. He plays video games. He and Brittany have wonderful times with Swift and Travis Kelce. Politics don’t hurt the Chiefs. Podcasts don’t hurt the Chiefs. When Reid’s son, Britt, was convicted for drunk driving and left a girl with brain injuries, he served prison time and was eliminated from the coaching staff. His sentence was commuted and he remains under house arrest until Oct. 31. Mahomes’ father has alcohol issues. His brother has social media issues. Again, they are in the exterior fray.
They allow the quarterback to have freedom and judge what he expects from Kelce, who might be in his final postseason. “The greats step up in the playoffs and it’s just higher intensity. He’s done that,” he said. “I think his mentality when he steps onto the field, it resonates with the entire team and gets everyone to play their best football. That’s what it takes to win championships. He has the heart of a champion. When your leaders and your Hall of Fame guys do that, I think everybody knows they have to put everything on the line.”
Reid also had advice for Mahomes this week. Brittney welcomed their third child, a daughter named Golden Raye, last Sunday. “He does great with it,” the coach said. “Once you have three, four and five are easy. That's what I told him. You made three, add a couple more, we'll talk.”
“Good with three right now,” Mahomes said. “We’ll stick there and see if we need to come back and get another later on.”
In the hub of Flyover land, in an ancient stadium near Interstate 70, the Chiefs have constructed a line of 21st-century rule. Mahomes is doubted every year. Why? “I learned a lot about myself last year, just when I felt I wasn’t playing my best and we were kind of struggling throughout the season,” he said. “I learned how to just find ways to win. It helped me grow up, to show that it’s not about stats. It’s not about how you get it done. It’s about getting it done.”
He will. They will. Brady, continuing to fight broadcast integrity as he run the Las Vegas Raiders, will analyze the Super Bowl for Fox Sports. A fourth championship for Mahomes, before 30, might make him sweat.
To win seven, he needed 43 years and 188 days.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.