Patrick Mahomes is new face of American sports after Super Bowl 2023 heroics
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Before his son started developing into the NFL’s finest player, Pat Mahomes saw the 10th-overall pick in the 2017 draft as a combination of Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers, with some Steve McNair sprinkled in.
Big Ben had won two Super Bowls, Rodgers had won one, and the late McNair didn’t win any. All these years later, the modest ring totals of the greats should remind every fan of how hard it is to scale the tallest mountain even once, never mind multiple times.
But Sunday night, Pat Mahomes’ son Patrick rose above all the formidable obstacles in his way, including a screaming right ankle, to use the forum of an epic Super Bowl clash to win his second championship and notarize his standing as an all-time great at age 27. On the decisive endgame drive in this 38-35 Chiefs victory over the Eagles, Mahomes broke free up the middle for a 26-yard run to the Philadelphia 17, chugging like mad through the pain.
It was his Willis Reed moment in his own Game 7, a triumph of the spirit over the body, of will over weakness. Mahomes was holding the ball high on the run, feeling, he said, as if “someone was just right on my back the entire time.” As long as they show Super Bowl highlights, they will show this play.
Harrison Butker kicked the winning field goal in the closing seconds, and that was that. Three nights after Mahomes was named league MVP for the second time, the youngest man to make his third Super Bowl start joined Tom Brady, Joe Montana, and Manning as the only quarterbacks with more than one Super Bowl victory and more than one regular-season MVP award.
Mahomes also ended a run of nine straight reigning league MVPs who had lost in the Super Bowl by being named the game’s MVP, by coming back from 10 points down at the half. Of course he did. Mahomes made it happen with three touchdown passes, including two in the fourth quarter, after re-injuring his high ankle sprain on a T.J. Edwards tackle near the end of the first half.
Mahomes struggled to get up, and the world suddenly stopped. He hobbled to the sideline, then writhed in agony on the bench. Would he be able to function at a high level in the second half? Would he even be able to play in the second half?
Yes, Patrick Mahomes taped up his ankle and played.
“I told you all this week,” the Chiefs quarterback told the crowd during the postgame ceremony, “there’s nothing that’s going to keep me off that football field.”
His counterpart, Jalen Hurts, delivered a tremendous performance, and yet Mahomes walked away with the trophy anyway. That’s who he is and what he does.
“He wants to be the greatest player ever,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said.
Mahomes said he didn’t take a painkilling shot at halftime, when he was busy telling his teammates, “You have to enjoy the moment. You can’t let the moment overtake you.” Mahomes set the ultimate example by refusing to surrender to the adverse circumstances he faced.
“It didn’t feel good,” he said of his ankle, “but I was going to leave it all out there. … You’re in the Super Bowl. You can worry about getting it healthy in the offseason.”
Truth is, this night in the desert felt much bigger than the records, the stats and the streaks. In the immediate wake of Brady’s re-retirement, and of LeBron James’ toppling of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time NBA scoring record, Mahomes now becomes the signature American athlete of the next generation.
His generation.
The NFL is by far the nation’s most popular sport and television show, and the quarterback position controls the winning and losing, along with the entertainment value. So Mahomes has the stage necessary to be “the man” for the next decade and change, along with the requisite talent. No quarterback has ever produced over his first five years as a starter what Mahomes has produced, which is why he is so often compared to Brady.
In a GOAT context, given the fact that Brady won 70 percent of his Super Bowl appearances, it was a really good idea for Mahomes to win two of his first three. So Mahomes had every reason to remain locked in on a second title when people kept bringing up a future run at seven.
“Catching Tom is a long ways away,” Mahomes had said, “and if you talk to me when I’m about 38 years old and I have like five or six of ’em, then I’ll start talking about trying to catch Tom.”
Count on that happening in the year 2034. Mahomes’ father, the former Mets reliever, once told me that his son benefited from a childhood spent around pro athletes, including the outfielders he helped shag fly balls as a 5-year-old during the 2000 World Series between the Mets and Yankees.
“There aren’t many events bigger than the World Series,” Pat Mahomes said. “That’s why I don’t think any moment now is ever too much for Patrick.”
Sunday night wasn’t too big for the Super Bowl MVP, even on one good wheel. Patrick Mahomes will be back for more, and more, and more. He is the new and undisputed king of American sports.
