Patrick Mahomes once revealed Tom Brady's 'respectful' gesture after beating Chiefs

Tom Brady is one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, while Patrick Mahomes is among the best of the current generation. The two faced each other on the field only six times, as Brady was in the twilight of his 22-year career and Mahomes was an upcoming star in the making.

The first of these encounters happened in 2018 when the New England Patriots beat the Kansas City Chiefs 43-40 in a high-scoring game. They faced each other again in the AFC championship game of the same season, but the Chiefs came up short again as they lost the final 31-37 in overtime.

However, the story of a rookie quarterback leading Kansas City to their first AFC Championships in years impressed Brady to initiate a conversation with Mahomes.

“He just talked about how he respected how I did everything the right way and stuff like that," Mahomes said in an ESPN interview in Nov. 2020. "It's just cool to have a guy of that stature who's won championships it seems like year in and year out that has respect for your game as much as you have respect for his. It was definitely a cool experience that I was able to know that I was doing things the right way early in my career.”

Per Mahomes, the conversation happened after the 2019 AFC championship game, when the young Chiefs quarterback was leaving Arrowhead Stadium while TB12 celebrated the victory with teammates. Although Patrick Mahomes was unhappy to lose the game, he was pleased to hear high praise from one of the greats of the game.

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Patrick Mahomes acknowledges 'it's hard' to match Tom Brady's historic record

Patrick Mahomes #15 of the Kansas City Chiefs shakes hands with Tom Brady #12 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. (Credits: Getty)

Patrick Mahomes faced Tom Brady again, this time on an even grander stage, Super Bowl 2021. While Brady had changed sides, his fortune remained unchanged: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9. It remains the worst game of Mahomes’s otherwise outstanding career.

In a post-Super Bowl conference in 2022, the Chiefs star said:

“To win that many Super Bowls, to be in that many games, it’s hard, and I’ve understood that,” Mahomes said. “After the years I’ve had, I mean, I’ve been a close a lot, but I’ve only been there twice and I’ve only won one.”

Since the loss to the Bucs, Mahomes has won two more Super Bowls and will face the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday for another one. Yet, Patrick Mahomes remains humble enough to acknowledge that he is still too far away from Tom Brady’s impressive seven Super Bowl record.