Patrick Mahomes' love story with Brittany started 'in the friend zone' - "I was the best friend"

Patrick Mahomes is easily the best quarterback in the NFL today. Boasting a pair of Super Bowl titles, multiple MVP awards, and a bunch of other accolades, he has, at just 27 years of age, already built a career that warrants enshrinement into the Hall of Fame.

He also happens to have one of the best families an athlete has ever had - a loving wife in Brittany and two adorable children: Sterling Skye and Patrick Lavon III aka Bronze. But like all marriages, theirs began in the humblest of ways.

In the series premiere of Quarterback, the Kansas City Chiefs star describes the origins of his relationship with Brittany:

"We kinda met in seventh, eighth grade. She was the grade above me, I was kind of the best friend, in the friend zone forever. I used to walk her to class and was trying to flirt. When I was a sophomore in high school, she was a junior. I actually got her a rose … I kinda … I had a crush on her. But, I was getting a rose as a joke for Valentine’s Day.”

Brittany, however, thought the rose was for real - which their relationship eventually became:

“I thought it was the cutest thing in the world. And then everyone at our lunch table started chanting, ‘Kiss him, kiss him,’ and made it really awkward cause we were ‘just friends’ so that’s kind of what started it and then I thought it was cute.”

In hindsight, that was the moment they realized they were meant for each other:

“I was like, ‘Okay this guy is actually kind of cute. Maybe I do like him.’ So then we just started talking and then started dating.”

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Brittany is the reason I am able to balance my career and family - Patrick Mahomes

For all the hate she receives, Brittany Mahomes is a key reason Patrick Mahomes has been able to achieve success in the gridiron without burning himself out in the trappings of fame. Speaking to PEOPLE during the Quarterback premiere in Los Angeles on Tuesday, the two-time Super Bowl winner said:

“I have a great wife. I think that helps out a ton. She helps me out a ton by taking stuff off my plate. I can be myself, the same person I've grown up being — and luckily that's won a couple of Super Bowls.”

He also said that he wanted to be able to inspire his children to emulate him when it came to balancing their professional and personal realms:

“Now they're too young now to understand, but when they see this as they get older, I want them to know that they can go out there and chase their dreams and still have a great family at home.”

Brittany, meanwhile, said her husband had succeeded in this task himself:

“He has a soft spot, but I think he's done such an amazing job at balancing his work life and his at-home life, and I think he's really switched around his priorities and figured it out."