Patrick Mahomes has found a creative way to feed into his competitive drive while still in rehab mode.
The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback has been hard at work recovering from the torn ACL and LCL he sustained last December. Mahomes spoke to reporters on Friday ahead of Chiefs training camp.
The 3-time Super Bowl winner shared how he reached out to Tom Brady and former teammate Tyrann Mathieu, both of whom suffered torn ACLs during their career. The two retired stars gave Mahomes advice on going through the lengthy recovery process.
Mahomes also mentioned that he’s been in constant communication with free agent tight end Zach Ertz, who also tore his ACL within a week of Mahomes’ injury.
“We kind of had like competitions on where we were at, and where we were rehabbing,” Mahomes said of Ertz, via Pete Sweeney of the Kansas City Star. “It would start off as how much deadlift — what you’re deadlifting, where you’re at — and then [we would] send little videos. He’s jumping and doing certain acceleration things, and I’m sending him next week doing cutting and stuff like that.
“It keeps the competition going because it’s a long process and you feel like sometimes you’re lonely because you’re doing stuff by yourself, and you’re just competing against yourself, so it gave me someone else that I can compete with to push my competitive drive.”
Injured athletes commonly express how isolating the injury recovery process can feel, particularly for an injury like Mahomes’ that takes almost a year to recover from. Chiefs fans probably cracked a smile knowing Mahomes felt a little less lonely competing with another Pro Bowler, even if it was just for who was rehabbing at a better rate.
Despite tearing his ACL seven months ago, Mahomes is fully cleared to participate in Kansas City’s training camp. He must have done pretty well in his virtual scoreboard against Ertz to get there.
