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KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Patrick Mahomes was in the locker room dealing with the Kansas City Chiefs’ abrupt end to the season after their 2018 AFC Championship game overtime loss to Tom Brady and the New York Patriots -England when they walked a visitor.
It was Brady who, before leaving to begin preparations for the Super Bowl, wanted to cheer on his young opponent, then in his first season as an NFL starting quarterback.
Mahomes said 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,” said Mahomes 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 you get up early and you try to put in the time and work. … Telling him that he respected what I was doing and how I was playing on the field and the type of person I was, it kind of marked me that I had to get in and even be even better to get 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 attempt on Sunday to do something Brady did earlier in his career, which is to win back-to-back championships. He’ll have to go through Brady, who has a record-breaking six Super Bowl title quarterback, all with the Patriots.
“He’s like me,” Mahomes said. “He’s going to leave everything he has on the field every time he’s out there. He doesn’t care what it takes. He doesn’t care if he has to throw for 400 yards or if he has to throw 100 yards. He wants to win. I feel like I have the same mentality. I just want to win no matter what or how it goes. “
Mahomes, 25, grew up watching Brady, 43, win those championships with the Patriots. Mahomes said there is a lot to admire about Brady’s game besides his success.
“There’s a ton of them,” Mahomes said when asked what talents Brady had that he’d like to put into his own game. “The way he’s able to dissect defenses before the snap is something that I really admire. I try to reach this level. The way he’s able to move around the pocket and be able to reset his feet and be completely calm and still do I can keep working on the money no matter who’s around him. As I go through my career, I’m going to try and do all I can to watch the tape on him because he’s doing it the right way. You can tell by how many Super Bowl championships he has and the rings on his fingers. “
Mahomes would close the gap between him and Brady in terms of Super Bowl titles to four with a Chiefs victory on Sunday. He should have the chance to win more. He said he would like to play as long as Brady, who started his NFL career with the Patriots in 2000.
“I want to play as long as they allow me,” he said. “To do this, I have to take care of my body as much as I take care of everything else on the pitch. If you want to play this sport for a long time, no matter how physical, you have to invest so much time in your body. than anything else. I have learned more and more in my young career so far about what I can do to stay available and healthy and try to be in the best nutritional state possible. I feel that I can be better. “
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