KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes is rapidly becoming a national sensation.
He’s the biggest story in the NFL right now after guiding the Kansas City Chiefs through a perfect September, which included road wins at the Los Angeles Chargers, Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football.
It would be forgivable — even completely understandable — if Mahomes were getting a big head amidst the attention, including back-to-back AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors to kick off the season.
But Mahomes’ coaches and teammates help keep him grounded with good-natured razzing, whether it’s about his voice or (lack of) basketball skills.
Rumor has it that Chiefs coach Andy Reid does an awesome impression of his budding star quarterback’s voice, but he declined to do it for the cameras.
“No, I am good,” Reid said. “Maybe it will come out someday at the end of the year.”
Reid isn’t alone in imitating Mahomes’ voice, which has been described as “froggish” by Reid and compared to the Muppets by others.
“Coach Reid, he’s an awesome guy,” Mahomes said. “He has that authoritative figure but at the same time can relate to everybody. He’s got the good impression of my voice, so it’s pretty cool. I’ve heard it. He throws it in there every once in a while, but it is kind of a surprise thing that you can never expect.”
Mahomes doesn’t rankle at the ribbing.
“I’ve heard it since I was in like seventh grade, but it’s something that I’ve kind of embraced,” Mahomes said. “The guys — (Travis) Kelce, Tyreek (Hill) and those guys — throw some shots at me. But don’t worry, I throw some shots back. … It’s who I am, so I’m never going to be insecure about it. I just kind of embrace it and keep going.”
Hill denied doing a Mahomes impersonation, citing his desire to keep getting passes thrown his way.
“I’m not in that,” Hill said. “Everybody knows Pat’s got an odd voice, but I’m not in that.”
Hill said he thought fellow wide receiver Demarcus Robinson has the best Mahomes impression.
Asked about Reid’s impression, Hill said, “I’m not fitting to get into that. I’m not in that. I’m trying to get more targets, man. I’m not going to mess that up for me.”
But that doesn’t mean Hill doesn’t give Mahomes a hard time, including a recent Twitter exchange during which Hill is skeptical of Mahomes’ basketball skills.
“Tyreek thinks I’m slow and can’t jump and all this stuff, so I told him that I dunked on someone and couldn’t find the video,” Mahomes said. “They came out with the video on Twitter, so I had to hit him with — he always says, ‘Thank you — so I had to hit him with ‘Thank you’ and threw up the peace sign to him. But he still doesn’t believe it was me.”
Thank you ✌🏽@cheetah https://t.co/yMx4RFu856
— Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes5) October 2, 2018
Even video evidence wasn’t enough to sway Hill.
“That is not Pat,” Hill said. “Do not believe Overtime Attack. C’mon, man. You know how it is. People can go back and find old videos. That is clearly not Pat. Whoever the kid is, he’s skinny, short hair. That is not Pat. I’m just trying to tell you all. … Pat can’t dunk, man. I had my little celeb game this offseason. He tried to dunk a couple times during warmups and he clearly failed. That video of Pat, once again, is not him, man. That is another kid.”
This is not you 😂😂😂 https://t.co/FpncT5ea37
— Ty Hill (@cheetah) October 2, 2018
As Mahomes continues to thrive in the spotlight, Reid expressed complete confidence in his quarterback’s ability to stay even-keeled.
“It surely hasn’t taken away from his preparation,” Reid said. “... He is in the building here all the time. He is going through the process. He exhausts that thing. When you do that the right way and whatever noise outside it, you are not oblivious to it, but you’re not worried about all that. You are worried about getting ready to play a good football team. He has just kept great focus on that part. I wouldn’t expect anything different from him. It is just how he is wired.”
