Patrick Mahomes Gives Praise to God After AFC Championship Win: 'He Healed My Body ... He Gave Me the Strength'
Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs punched their ticket to Super Bowl LVII with a 23-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
There was ample praise to go around, from Mahomes playing with a badly injured ankle, to star tight end Travis Kelce playing with a back he had just injured during a Friday practice, to star defensive lineman Chris Jones putting on a one-man show against the Bengals o-line.
But when asked about the game in a post-game interview, Mahomes didn’t mince words … none of the Chiefs deserved to be thanked first.
No, Mahomes opted to thank God first, in an incredible post-game moment with CBS Sports reporter Tracy Wolfson:
.@PatrickMahomes reacts to winning his 3rd AFC Championship! (via @NFLonCBS)@Chiefs pic.twitter.com/tvGvxiv2ed
— NFL (@NFL) January 30, 2023
“First of all, I wanna thank God, man,” an excited and hoarse Mahomes said immediately after the game. “He healed my body this week to battle through that. He gave me the strength to be out here.”
For the unaware, Mahomes suffered a high ankle sprain during the AFC Divisional round game against the Jacksonville Jaguars (the Chiefs won 27-20), and his status was actually up in the air for Sunday’s game.
High ankle sprain recovery times can vary, but four weeks is generally considered the absolute fastest recovery table. Mahomes was able to return to play football in a matter of about four days.
Of course, Mahomes did eventually shower praise on his team, noting how they “stepped up” when it mattered most.
For Mahomes, the win had to have been triply sweet.
First of all, the Bengals and their fans had been talking a lot of trash leading up to this game, labeling the Chiefs stadium “Burrowhead” and even demanding that Mahomes take a DNA test to verify that Joe Burrow was his father (the Bengals quarterback hadn’t lost a game to the Chiefs until Sunday).
Remember, this was a rematch of last year’s AFC title game, which the Bengals won before losing to the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl.
Secondly, this win provided a clear path for Mahomes to start entering “greatest quarterback of all time”-discussions (premature as those may be). Winning two Super Bowls before turning 28 gives Mahomes an outside shot at surpassing the seven Super Bowl rings that Tom Brady has.
Lastly, and most importantly, this win gave Mahomes another chance to praise God, and he clearly took it.
The Kansas City quarterback has actually never been shy about his faith — or about how much of a role it plays in his day-to-day.
In fact, when Mahomes won his first regular season MVP in the 2018-2019 season, the speech he gave at the award ceremony echoed the interview he gave on Sunday.
“I’m truly honored to win the NFL’s most valuable player award. When you look at this award you see the rich history that it has. You see guys like (John) Elway and (Brett) Favre, (Peyton) Manning and (Tom) Brady, and many more,” Mahomes said at the start of his speech.
“I’m so humbled that I can be sharing this prestigious honor with them. This season was special and there was a lot of people that helped me get to this point,” he added.
But after saying how humbled he was, note who he wanted to thank “first.”
“First, I just want to thank God because without him none of this would even be here,” Mahomes said.
Even without a camera on him, Mahomes has been eager to thank God for all of his blessings:
Man this is crazy! God is amazing! Thank you to everyone who has supported me and helped me get here! #ChiefsKindgom thank you for your passion but this is just the beginning!
— Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) February 3, 2019
Mahomes and the Chiefs will play the Philadelphia Eagles on Feb. 12 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
The Chiefs have opened up as slight underdogs.
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