LAS VEGAS — Here Patrick Mahomes is again, chasing another Super Bowl championship. This is who he is. This is what he does. This is where he does it.
And here is a warning to the rest of the NFL: He will be chasing them for the next decade. Or longer.
He is only 28 years old and he lusts for his third Lombardi Trophy the way a 27-year-old Tom Brady lusted for his third, and those who know the face of the Chiefs and the face of Super Bowl 2024 best are certain that if he beats the 49ers on Sunday night, he will lust for a fourth and then a fifth and a sixth and a seventh if he is lucky the way Brady did until he finally abandoned the love of his life at age 45.
He can see himself playing 15 more years.
“You want to play as long as they’ll let you play,” Mahomes said Monday at “Opening Night” at the Super Bowl. “Obviously Brady did it and some other guys have done it, so I’m gonna try to strive to see if I can do it as well.
“I don’t want to play until I’m hurting the team. So if I can go out there and have success, and still love it every single day, I think that’s the biggest thing, and put the time and effort into it, then I’ll play. And if I feel like I’m helping the team, I’ll go out there and do whatever I can to keep doing that.”
Hoisting the Lombardi Trophy is an addiction for him. But experiencing the agony of defeat in Super Bowl LV — to Brady — trumps the addiction.
“That’s definitely something that you want to continue to do,” Mahomes said. “I think, more than anything, I’ve lost the Super Bowl and I know how bad that hurts. You want to make sure you stay away from that feeling. So I think even more than hoisting that trophy, when you lose and you’re in that locker room, and you feel like you were that close and you didn’t get it, I’m gonna look more even to stay away from that feeling than I am hoisting the trophy.”
He has yet to repeat as champion.
“To be able to win back-to-back Super Bowls is special,” Mahomes said. “There’s only a small group of teams that have been able to do that. So for us, it’s just to prove that we can do it. I think we got the guys to do it.”
If he does it, he’ll be four Super Bowl championships behind Brady.
’I’m not even close to halfway,” Mahomes said, and smiled. “You ask me that question in like 15 years and I’ll see if I can get close to seven, but seven seems like a long ways away though.”
Brady is the unchallenged GOAT, and Mahomes acknowledges as much when asked about being included in the GOAT conversation.
“It’s extremely early,” Mahomes said. “Tom’s won like seven Super Bowls, every single record in the book. All I can do is be the best Patrick Mahomes I can be every single day and that’s all I’ll contribute to do.”
Tiger Woods 18 years ago became obsessed with the Navy Seals following the death of his father. Michael Jordan quit the Bulls to play baseball for the Birmingham Barons years after the death of his father. Mahomes is wired more like Brady.
“The Lord willing, no injuries, they’re gonna have to tear the uniform off of him,” Pat Mahomes, his father, was telling me over the phone prior to his troubling Saturday night arrest for suspicion of DWI. “So yeah, I can see him playing at 40. I can see him playing until they make him stop playing.”
His son was his usual relaxed, likeable self in front of the national media, and said this about any possible distraction:
“I think the great thing about football and the great thing about our team is we have a great building and a great brotherhood. … We’re a family and that’s how we roll with things.”
Jordan regretted leaving basketball and returned. Tiger regained his love for golf.
“I think what I’ve always said drives me my entire career is I don’t want to have any regrets,” Mahomes said. “I don’t want to look back on my career and say I regret how I went out there and performed every single day … and if I give everything I have, I can be satisfied with the results and that’s what drives me every single day.”
Beware, NFL. This is who he is. This is what he does. This is where he does it.
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