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BALTIMORE – While they stood and sang, he sat in silence. As the music played and cigarette smoke filled the air and his teammates danced amid the delirium of a fourth trip to the Super Bowl in five years, Patrick Mahomes retreated to a plastic chair in the corner of the visitors’ locker room at M&T Bank Stadium and exhaled.
The euphoria was there, of course, but at that moment, the best soccer player on the planet had an expression of absolute relief. For five minutes, he stared at his phone with a smile on his face.
Even after the midseason grind and all those drops by his receivers, after he spent weeks biting his tongue in front of microphones before finally breaking out on the sideline, after his Pro Bowl tight end started showing his age and experts began to wonder if the champions still had the courage to reach another postseason; this one would have to come on the road — one truth remains inevitable: this is still Patrick Mahomes’ league.
He is Michael Jordan at his best, the obstacle that many of his peers cannot overcome when it matters most. Jordan spent the 1990s crushing the title hopes of his counterparts (Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone), worthy Hall of Famers in their own right. That’s what Mahomes is doing right now, leaving people like Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson wondering when his time will come. And if this guy is ever going to get out of the way.
“It is difficult to describe someone that well,” Kansas City general manager Brett Veach said Sunday night, an hour after the Chiefs defeated the Ravens 17-10 in the AFC Championship Game, their fourth conference title in Mahomes’ six seasons as a starter. “He is a legend. “He is a blessing.”
And it remains an impediment for all AFC teams with Super Bowl ambitions.
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This career has been different, perhaps more rewarding, because of the path the Chiefs took. Because of a messy regular season and an offense that never looked good and the questions that lingered into early January. It was a little more than a month ago that Veach met with head coach Andy Reid after the Chiefs lost a Christmas Day game to the Raiders, their fifth loss in eight weeks, a stretch of unimaginable mediocrity for a team that has been a championship contender since Mahomes became the starter in 2018.
“Something was wrong,” Veach said. “I think that loss really affected us. “It allowed the entire organization to look in the mirror.”
Five weeks later, he called it one of the reasons they keep playing.
From the moment the postseason began, on a frigid night in Kansas City in the wild-card round, the champions seemed revived. Kelce, for starters, seemed determined to shake off his sloppy regular season: He stormed the field that night for warmups, dancing and screaming, sleeveless, in subzero temperatures. His energy never wavered and his fire ignited the team. The Dolphins never had a chance.
What the Chiefs have done in consecutive weeks since then, winning in Buffalo and then in Baltimore on Sunday night, has been a testament to their championship resolve forged through postseason runs past, not to mention the lessons learned from their difficult regular season.
“It’s kind of tough,” Reid said of making it deep into the playoffs each winter, the routine of playing two or three extra games each year. “You have to work on it mentally. That is not easy”.
Sunday’s victory speaks to that. The Chiefs looked and played like a veteran team. The Ravens constantly got in their own way. The Chiefs committed three penalties; the Ravens eight. The Chiefs scored touchdowns on their first two trips to the red zone and finished with no turnovers; the Ravens lost him three times, twice in Kansas City territory.
Baltimore’s frustration grew throughout the game. Jackson threw an errant interception in triple coverage and hit his helmet. Ravens standout rookie receiver Zay Flowers fumbled at the goal line, stormed the sideline and cut his hand.
The Chiefs played like champions.
“When it came time to lower the hammer, they lowered it,” Reid said.
Mahomes shined from the start, playing the quarterback position as well as you can play against an elite defense like Baltimore’s. He made throws in tight windows, like his first-quarter touchdown to Kelce. He came out of muddy pockets and kept the pucks alive. He completed his first 11 passes, a harsh and humiliating reminder to a rowdy crowd clad in purple and black at M&T Bank Stadium.
That is to say, the AFC still depends on the Chiefs, even if the games are played somewhere besides Kansas City.
“We’re the outlaws,” catcher Rashee Rice later boasted. “Everyone wants to beat the Chiefs. “We have a target on our back every day.”
After a tough second half that saw five straight punts by the Chiefs offense, Mahomes launched his prettiest throw of the game, an arcing dagger to Márquez Valdés-Scantling on third-and-nine with 2:19 remaining that sent fans to line up. Departures.
“We have the best quarterback in the world,” Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill said. “We have the best tight end in the world. We have the best coach in the world. We have the best defensive coordinator in the world. We have the best CEO in the world.
“When you have all that? It’s just a matter of time.”
At one point in the second half, Mahomes had 27 completions to Jackson’s five. Mahomes finished 30 of 39 for 241 yards and a touchdown, outplaying the league’s presumptive MVP in moments big and small (Jackson was 20 of 37 for a touchdown and an interception). In a game where both quarterbacks faced championship-level defenses, Mahomes looked more steady. Jackson was mixed at best.
And a crowd that desperately wanted to see Jackson finally advance to a Super Bowl (pretty much all that’s missing from his resume at this point) got to watch No. 15 make a fourth trip in five years, with a chance to win his third. Lombardi Trophy. With Joe Burrow’s 2021 season being the only exception, Mahomes continues to send his counterparts home, year after year.
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The scene afterward was familiar in some ways but fresh in others. Mahomes took to another stage, accepting another trophy, perhaps the most surprising of all the ones he has lifted during this golden start to his career. “You don’t take it for granted,” he later said of his advance to his final Super Bowl. “You never know how many you’re going to reach.”
He is 28 years old. He has already won 14 playoff games, the same as Peyton Manning, the same as John Elway, the same as Terry Bradshaw. That puts him tied for third all-time, behind only Joe Montana (16 wins) and Tom Brady (35). And he’s done it in just six seasons.
After Mahomes presented the Lamar Hunt Trophy, Kelce, who caught all 11 of his targets for 116 yards and a touchdown, walked off stage holding hands with his famous girlfriend Taylor Swift. A Chiefs teammate couldn’t understand the crowd of photographers, dozens and dozens, following them. It was amazing, even for a team used to dealing with intense attention.
“My God, I’ve never seen anything like this,” the player said.
From there, Kelce eventually found his brother, Jason, who was wearing a Chiefs hat. They embraced.
“This is a easy team to root for,” Jason said a moment later. “They stayed together despite all the nonsense.”
There was a lot of that, the rigors of a championship fight that for months never seemed to get on track. The sparks came from Kelce, who was nervous in walk-throughs and practices all week (“He led us,” Mahomes said, “he loves the challenge”). And of Reid, who never flinched in his postgame meetings with team owner Clark Hunt this season (“he never doubted the team,” Hunt said). And from defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who on Sunday drafted a masterpiece of a game plan, stifling Jackson and the Ravens offense all game long.
But, the same goes for all contenders, much of that depends on the face of the franchise, who after the most infuriating season of his career, found a seat in a celebratory locker room to sit alone and enjoy.
It wasn’t just another trip to the Super Bowl. It was the most unlikely of all.
“He gives everyone that belief and that hope,” Veach said of his quarterback. “It doesn’t matter what the odds are, where we play, where we’re going. “If we have 15 under center, we have a chance.”
(Photo: Kathryn Riley/Getty Images)