Two-time Super Bowl winner Patrick Mahomes is crediting his diverse athletic background for helping him develop into one of the NFL’s most dangerous quarterbacks.
The Kansas City Chiefs star and former Texas pitcher told Esquire’s Joe Posnanski that both baseball and basketball helped him build a foundation that allowed him to have success in the NFL. Mahomes previously played point guard as a high schooler in Texas, while starring as a shortstop and a pitcher on the diamond.
‘So much of what I do is because I played baseball,’ said Mahomes – the son and namesake of a former Major League relief pitcher. ‘I was a shortstop, and out on the football field I’m doing exactly what I was doing as a shortstop. I’m hitting the first baseman in the chest. All those arm angles, throwing sidearm, underhand, against the body—all of that is stuff I did as a shortstop.’
Mahomes nearly followed in his father’s footsteps to the majors after being drafted by the Detroit Tigers out of high school in 2014, but instead opted to enroll at Texas Tech.
The elder Mahomes, known as Pat, pitched for six MLB clubs, primarily as a reliever, over his 11-year career. His best years came with the New York Mets in 1997 and 1998, when he posted a 4.74 ERA.
Patrick Mahomes (left) nearly followed his father Pat, to Major League Baseball, but instead became a minority owner of the Kansas City Royals
Mahomes appears at the Breakthrough Series in Kansas City during the summer of 2018
Mahomes, who owns a minority stake in MLB’s Kansas City Royals, is hardly the first pro athlete to dabble in baseball on the side.
Michael Jordan played pro baseball at the Double-A level, while retired Boston Celtics star Danny Ainge played three seasons as a Toronto Blue Jays infielder. Even Ainge’s Celtics teammate Larry Bird had a season of college baseball at Indiana State, where he’s said to have hit .500.
And many NFL quarterbacks have a background in baseball, as well, such as Tom Brady and Michael Vick, both of whom were drafted by MLB teams.
In fact, John Elway was once an elite prospect for the New York Yankees, which he used as leverage to force to the Baltimore Colts to trade his draft rights to the Denver Broncos.
More recently, Kyler Murray was drafted first overall by the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals in 2019 – one year after being picked ninth overall by the Oakland Athletics in MLB’s draft. He has since chosen to play in the NFL.
Patrick Mahomes shoots a basketball on the 17th hole at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe
Travis Kelce (l) and Patrick Mahomes (r) of the Kansas City Chiefs watch a Royals game in 2017
But it’s not just baseball that helped Mahomes.
As he explained, playing point guard helped prepare him for quarterbacking football teams.
‘But playing high school basketball also had a huge influence on the way I play,’ he said. ‘I was a point guard, and in many ways that’s exactly how I feel now. I’m still the point guard, trying to get the ball to people in space, get the ball to them in a position to score. In a lot of ways, it’s exactly the same thing.’
Once again, Mahomes is hardly the only point guard to have success under center on the gridiron.
Legendary NBA point guard Allen Iverson was named the Associated Press’ High School Player of the Year in both basketball and football while attending Hampton, Virginia’s Bethal High in the early 1990s.
