Strange But True: Patrick Mahomes’ Father Told Him to Drop Football While in High School
The future face of the NFL was almost a "never was."
Like many exceptional athletes during his teenage years, current Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes II played multiple sports while at Whitehouse High School in East Texas: baseball, football and basketball. His father, Patrick Mahomes, Sr. made it to the big leagues: he was a pitcher for multiple major league baseball teams.
Recently, the elder Mahomes told a New York Post podcast that he tried to talk his son into dropping football after his sophomore year in high school.
A specific conversation was had after Mahomes went on a football recruiting trip to visit the Texas Longhorns. Mack Brown had him tabbed for defense, not offense, with the Longhorns.
"I remember asking Mack Brown, 'You mean to tell me you’re recruiting him as a safety?’" Mahomes, Sr. said. "And he goes, 'Yeah.' And I go, 'Well, that lets me know right there that y'all don't watch film, 'cause my son hasn't made a tackle in two years. And it ain't by accident either, 'cause I told him he better not tackle anybody."
(As an aside, how many athletes did Mack Brown wiff on because he wanted to move an offensive player to defense? If I remember correctly, Brown tried to do the same thing to Vince Young, too.)
Mahomes, Sr. then recounted how he told his son he needed to drop football because it was his "worst sport."
What kept Mahomes on the football field for his junior and senior years at Whitehouse? His friends.
"[Patrick] looked at me and said, ‘Dad, you know, I just want to play with my friends. I can't see myself on Friday nights being up in the stands and watching them play and not being a part of it.' So that was kinda it for the conversation," Mahomes, Sr. recalled to the New York Post.
The rest, as they say, is history. Mahomes became the starting quarterback for Whitehouse in his junior and senior seasons and caught the eye of former Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury. Mahomes came to Lubbock in 2014 before embarking on a meteoric rise as a Super Bowl-winning quarterback in just his third season in the NFL, then losing a Super Bowl in his fourth season.
Sometimes, the simplest of choices have an impact on the rest of our lives. And for Patrick Mahomes, it was a conversation while in 10th grade that could have changed everything.
Mahomes is in the midst of playing under a 10-year, $500 million+ contract with the Kansas City Chiefs.
In 2021, listen to Kansas City Chiefs games in Lubbock, Texas on Lonestar 99.5 FM.