PATRICK MAHOMES BEATS EVERYBODY — EXCEPT HIS FATHER AND HIS BROTHER
It’s remarkable to appreciate his place in history and gentlemanly ways as his dad, Pat Sr., can’t avoid drunk-driving incidents while younger brother Jackson just had three felony charges dismissed
Have we ever seen him rage, do anything but laugh or feel blessed or smirk in self-satisfaction? Think. Have we? In any contemporary scope of a prominent sportsman absorbing stress — social media, 120 million viewing the Super Bowl, people curious if he dents Tom Brady’s record, his tight end dating the singer of “The Tortured Poets Department” album, his place as the biggest face of an American passion and cause — it sure seems Patrick Mahomes never, ever folds.
He senses his power when he sees his commercials. “I think you feel it a little bit, the run that we’ve been on,” he said. “I think until I actually go around the world and see the different types of stuff, I don’t think I’ll realize it enough, the impact we’ve had.” He might on Thursday night, when he has been nominated for the NFL’s Man of the Year Award thanks to his work with his foundation, “15 and The Mahomies.”
“The Walter Payton Award means more than being a great football player. It means being a great person,” he said. “It means more than any award out there. It means having an impact on the world.”
And then, Sunday night, he could win his third Super Bowl in five years, at 28, meaning he’d be third in postseason quarterbacking victories behind Joe Montana and Brady. Three championships are only four from seven, which Brady needed 45 years to attempt. Are we observing the early stages of the greatest football player — of all time — and a wonderful human? It’s worth a thought.
But what would he say at a Las Vegas media extravaganza, on Monday evening, when asked why his father can’t stay out of legal trouble and was arrested Saturday night on his latest charge — at least three — of driving while intoxicated? You might know about Pat Mahomes Sr., 54, who pitched 11 seasons for six major-league clubs from 1992 to 2003. Bet you didn’t know he has been involved in 11 other incidents. Bet you didn’t know he was sentenced to 40 days in jail in 2019 after pleading guilty to DWI. Bet you didn’t know about last February in Arizona, when he claimed to be smoking “Philly blunts” after his son and the Kansas City Chiefs had beaten the Philadelphia Eagles. Or two weeks earlier, when he said he was “smoking that Joe Burrow” when the Chiefs beat Cincinnati for the AFC title.
When asked why he wasn’t in Taylor Swift’s suite during the playoffs in Baltimore and Buffalo, Mahomes Sr. said of Travis Kelce’s girlfriend, “Nah, I don’t think so. Travis normally has his own thing and Patrick has his own deal, too.” In his latest episode, he allegedly was driving with an open 16-ounce Coors beer in the console after having “a few beers while watching a game at a local bar.”
It was inevitable on Super Bowl Opening Night that Mahomes would be asked about the drunk driving. More than 6,000 media members are accredited. Some actually are credible, not showing up in a wedding dress and proposing as one did to Brady. Said Mahomes, refusing to address details:
“I can’t go into it too much, but I mean he’s doing good for whatever the situation is. It’s a family matter, so I’ll just keep it to the family. That’s all I’m going to say at this point.”
The cop shop in the Texas town of Tyler couldn’t be prouder of the high-school hero, Patrick. It lost patience long ago for Pat Sr., the jailbird, who was divorced in 2006 from the quarterback’s mother, Randi. The same somber sounds can be heard in a Kansas City suburb for Patrick’s younger brother, Jackson. Not until last month were three felony charges dismissed that he grabbed a woman by the neck and forcefully kissed her three times without her consent. Last February, a restaurant owner named Aspen Vaughn made the allegations but chose not to cooperate after her business suffered — death threats included — amid a police investigation.
Surveillance footage was placed on social media. Jackson is an influencer who had been badgered on multiple sites in the past. When Vaughn said last year, “He forcibly kissed me out of nowhere” — then chased a three-felony case of aggravated sexual battery — Chiefs Kingdom became a nuthouse that loved Patrick and hated Jackson. To one media poster, Mahomes’ wife, Brittany, wrote: “They are ignorant. He is a human just trying to live his life and find his way and until you walk a day in his shoes (which no one ever will) you have no right to say s–t about him. So it’s best to just shut up.” But will they? In the past, he poured water on Baltimore fans who taunted him and danced on a logo in Washington where the late player, Sean Taylor, was honored.
How astonishing to see one brother take over the world while his father and younger brother find repeated problems. Swift continues to have dinner with the quarterback’s wife and parties in Kelce’s suite at games, including this week. But Mahomes goes home to see family. He has dethroned everyone in his professional life but Brady, three years ago in Tampa’s Super Bowl, with Lamar Jackson going down last month alongside Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, Jimmy Garoppolo and Burrow in a rematch. A sound Achilles tendon or not, Aaron Rodgers can’t hang. With a win over the San Francisco 49ers, already complaining about their practice site, Mahomes will master the first back-to-back repeat since Brady in 2003-04. He tried and failed in 2021.
“They’ve been such different seasons, I think that’s been the biggest thing,” he said. “The last time we tried to go back-to-back, I think we were 14-1 going into that last week, got to rest, lost that game and then kind of rolled through the playoffs. It’s never easy, but we played well, and we were just kind of like, ‘Oh we’re going to do it again.’ We’re going to go out there and play again, and we got our butt kicked.
“This year it’s been completely opposite. It’s been a struggle throughout the season, and we’ve had to continue to get better and better. That’s what I’ve always preached. … I think now it’s not just being satisfied with getting there — this is a great football team we’re going up against, it’s going to take our best football, kind of like it’s taken the last three weeks that we’ve played.” It doesn’t take him long to shift topics, saying of what he calls his soft body, oddly: “I have a six-pack and it’s just under the dad bod. If you feel, there might be some skin there, but underneath that the six-pack is there. You just have to get real close and you have to squint a little bit and I think you’ll see it.” He chuckled, again.
Of all teams to inherit a global vision, the Chiefs don’t come from a big market. Yet Mahomes, Kelce and Andy Reid brought in 53 million for the AFC title game and were responsible for 16 of America’s most-watched TV broadcasts last year. Along with Swift, they are watched by natives Jason Sudeikis and Paul Rudd while actor Henry Winkler wears his quarterback’s uniform number. Singer Melissa Etheridge gushed about Kelce and Swift to CNN. “I think it’s fantastic. I love it,” she said. “I’m just worried he’s going to retire early to be with her.”
Mahomes’ mother couldn’t be prouder. “I can literally say I can’t remember a time you didn’t have a ball in your hand or something you wanted to play catch with,” she wrote last week. “Easter egg, gum ball, or even socks. I’m super proud of you and I admire your hard work and dedication. I love you and so proud. Enjoy every moment.”
Said his father, before his latest arrest, about Brady comparisons: “That's still to be determined. He still has a ways to go. I have mad respect for Tom Brady and grew up as a Joe Montana fan. He is on the right trajectory.”
It’s a love-in, except for a man who can’t stay out of prison and a brother who barely avoided it. The Chiefs are almighty and flaunt a potential dynasty. “I think in dynasties, I always say you’ve got to win three,” Mahomes said. “Our job is to do whatever we can to win as many as we can, not have any regrets when we step off the field. I think if we keep the mentality we have, we can look back at the end of our career, then we can decide if we’re a dynasty or not.”
Not a week before another possible rung, he left the stadium floor smiling. His father might smoke that Brock Purdy sometime Sunday night, as a judge is allowing him to travel if he remains sober — God help us all. The world won’t bother noticing while illuminating on his cool son.
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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.