Arrowhead Pride
Patrick Mahomes played less than a minute Saturday — but never left the game | Kansas City Star
Reflecting his sense of himself as a dedicated teammate, his sheer passion for the game and innate understanding of how he affects everyone around him, Mahomes was engaged the rest of the night.
Late in the first half when safety Deon Bush suffered an Achilles tendon injury that Reid said would require surgery, Mahomes was the first player to cross the field from the sideline to take a knee at Bush’s side.
A moment later, some dozen or so teammates made the cross-field trek to console Bush as he was about to be carted off. Along with Reid, he made a similar gesture when teammate Cam Jones was down, too.
And Mahomes was repeatedly in the ear of offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, never more visibly than in the final 4 minutes of the game — more than three hours after he’d been removed.
With the Chiefs facing third-and-16 at the Arizona 26, Mahomes ran to Nagy to make a finer point he wanted Nagy to convey to reserve quarterback Bailey Zappe.
But with Reid being “the GOAT” of play-calling, as Mahomes called him, he wanted it known he wasn’t telling anyone what to do.
“I wasn’t suggesting play calls. I was more giving tips that he could kind of relay to the quarterbacks,” Mahomes said. “Just in certain situations. Just guys being in new situations in games like that.”
When I asked him why it was important to stay so immersed in the game, he said, “You know me. I love it. I love the game. So I’ll always be locked in in there.”
In a sneak peak of ESPN’s docuseries “The Kingdom,” [Baltimore Ravens HC John Harbaugh] recalled talking to Reid about a mantra that Reid has gone by throughout his career.
“I looked over his shoulder, and I saw this index card,” Harbaugh said. “It just had two words on it. I said, coach, ‘don’t judge,’ what’s that?
“You meet players where they’re at,” Harbaugh continued about what Reid told him. “You don’t make judgments based on your perception, your bias, what you think they should be or shouldn’t be. Meet them where they’re at, and then try to figure out where you can go with them. Andy was always looking for the best. His dreams for the player were bigger than the player’s dreams for himself. As long as I was there, that index card was up there. I never saw it move.”
Reid also explained why he had the mantra written down on a card.
“Don’t judge,” Reid said. “I try to look at the positive in somebody first. We’ve...
