KANSAS CITY, Ma. Patrick Mahomes was in the locker room and was dealing with the sudden end of the Kansas City Chiefs season after their AFC Championship’s 2018 overtime loss to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots when he visited a visitor.
It was Brady who, before leaving to start preparing for the Super Bowl, wanted to give some encouragement to his younger opponent, then in his first season as a starting quarterback of the NFL.
Mahomes said on Monday that Brady’s visit and encouragement meant a lot to him.
“It was important because it showed I was doing things the right way,” Mahomes said as he and the Chiefs continued to prepare for Sunday’s Super Bowl LV against Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. ‘As a young quarterback in this league, you show up early and you try to put in the time and get the job done. … He said he respects what I do and how I play on the field and the type of person I was, it left me with a stamp that I should go in and it would be even better to come to the Super Bowl . ”
The Chiefs would reach the Super Bowl next season for the first time in 50 years. There they beat the San Francisco 49ers.
Mahomes will try on Sunday to do something that Brady did earlier in his career, which is a rugby championship. He will have to go through Brady, who has a quarterback record of six Super Bowl titles, all along with the Patriots.
“He’s just like me,” Mahomes said. “He’s going to leave everything he has on the field every time he’s out there. He does not care what it takes. He does not care if he has to throw 400 meters or throw 100 meters. He wants to win. I “I feel like I have the same mentality. I just want to win, no matter what happens or how it happens.”
Mahomes, 25, grew up watching 43-year-old Brady win the championship with the Patriots. Mahomes said there is much to admire about Brady’s game, in addition to his success.
“There’s a ton,” Mahomes said when asked what talents Brady has that he would like to use in his own game. “The way he can analyze defense in front of the picture is something I really admire. I try to get to that level. The way he can move in the pocket and recover his feet and be completely calm and still throwing right at the money, no matter who is around him, is something I can continue to work on.While I continue in my career, I’m just going to try my best to watch the band on him, because he does “You can see how many Super Bowl championships he has and the rings on his fingers.”
Mahomes would reduce the gap between himself and Brady in terms of Super Bowl titles to four with a Chiefs victory Sunday. He should get the chance to win more. He said he would like to play as long as Brady, who began his NFL career with the Patriots in 2000.
“I want to play as long as they allow me,” he said. ‘To be able to do that, I have to take care of my body just as much as I do of all the other things on the field. If you want to practice this sport for a long time, no matter how physical it is, you need to invest as much time in your body as anything else. So far in my young career I have learned more and more about what I can do to keep myself available and healthy and to be in the best nutritional condition I can be. I feel I can be better. ‘