Andy Reid reveals Chiefs considered benching Patrick Mahomes for Chad Henne during Super Bowl LVII
The Kansas City Chiefs pulled off a historic comeback in Glendale, Arizona, to hand the franchise their third Lombardi title. The win was quarterback Patrick Mahomes' second in what has thus far been a stellar career.
But the win wasn't an easy one to bag. Early on, the Chiefs struggled to find form and went down by ten points at halftime. What didn't help their cause was the knock Patrick Mahomes received to his already injured ankle in the second quarter.
The quarterback was recovering from a high-ankle sprain which he picked up during their Divisional round matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Pat Mahomes was visibly limping after being taken down by TJ Edwards…
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With Mahomes limping off after the play, the Chiefs were stuck in quite a spot. Whether to bring on backup Chad Henne or risk playing Mahomes and further aggravating his injury.
The Chiefs ultimately decided to stick around with Mahomes, and the decision surely paid dividends as the team went on to win the game by mounting an epic comeback.
Speaking to Albert Breer after the game, Chiefs HC Andy Reid revealed the decision-making behind the move and how Mahomes' tenacity made him take the call:
"He just wanted to be left alone... Those high ankle sprains, you tweak them and they hurt like heck. And then you gotta kind of let it calm down a little bit. And some guys can handle it, and some guys can’t."
Given the severity of Mahomes' injury, Reid said that the team considered benching their star QB for Henne:
"We started warming Henne up, obviously before the half, but he was able to push through the pain, which is unbelievable."
The quarterback ultimately played through the pain to guide the team to glory and even ended up bagging the Super Bowl MVP award in the process.
Andy Reid reveals what he told Chiefs during Super Bowl halftime talk
Down by 10, Kansas City had a mountain to climb in the Super Bowl. Veteran HC Andy Reid, though, knew exactly what to say to get his boys back in the game:
"I talked to them and just said, 'Listen, we're right there. We are right there. 10 points.' I said, 'What I just told you is that 10 points is nothing here. We could take care of this. Everybody just calm down and do your jobs. Don't worry about anything else. Just do your job and it will all work out.'"
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Kansas City's epic comeback will live on in NFL infamy, and Andy Reid's words will surely stick with the players for years to come.