Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes details how fatherhood changed his outlook on life and football

Parenthood is a transformative journey. With the responsibilities adding up, parents, along with kids, tend to grow a bit in their personal and professional lives. Only when they reflect on their past selves do they know how far they've evolved. Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback is no exception to this transformative journey. The 28-year-old, who began playing for NFL in 2017, has grown significantly in football and life. Before playing his fourth Super Bowl on Sunday and securing a stunning overtime victory, Mahomes reflected on his evolution to Fox News and it's nothing short of inspiring.

Speaking about his growth, Mahomes said, "I think you learn a ton being a father, man. You learn how to be patient." He highlighted the association between our personal development and its impact on our careers. "You learn how to try to really boost people’s confidence, especially your kids. Through seasons like I’ve had this last year, it’s never losing hope, never going too negative in adverse times. Just continue to boost people’s confidence, continue to strive for hard work and really be patient," he said. Indeed, Mahomes requires a lot of patience to go through testing times like they've had this season where the Chiefs were slammed for several dropped passes in earlier games.

As per the news channel, the Chiefs' offense also faced the second-most penalties this season and Mahomes had a tough time holding back his vexation. So, it is understandable when the football champion says that the patience we learn from fatherhood teaches us a lot in life. Going above and beyond to give his best in the games, Mahomes had to rebuild his personality keeping his preferences aside to become a game manager. He has come a long way from how he used to ace the no-look throw and rocket toss and has learned the significance of checking down to running backs when deep shots were covered. The NFL champion adapted to having audibles to running plays taking advantage of the defense's alignment and also learned from experience to take a sack promptly to buy time.

"I think guys understood that we could play a different way to win football games," said Mahomes. In the words of Travis Kelce, the Chiefs' tight end, "He (Mahomes) is the catalyst. He's the reason why we’re here and why we’re able to keep coming back to back. And honestly, he just gives his team a certain sense of urgency and confidence that we can go and get it done, and that goes a long way." There's no better example than Mahomes to prove that learning to be patient and accepting the lessons that situations teach us comes in handy in life as well as in our careers. 

Despite lacking this patience during his younger days, Mahomes has always been ahead of the kids in his team and they had to keep up with his quick-witted moves. He reminisced an incident from a T-ball game where a grounder was hit in his direction at shortstop. The shrewd player, rather than making a rainbow flick like everyone would expect, instead "sent a laser across the diamond." He said, "It hit the kid right in the face and broke his glasses and so they told me after that they wanted me to roll the ball to first base and I ended up just playing first base and catching it from then on." Mahomes' iconic touchdown pass gave the Chiefs a 25-22 victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.