Chiefs trainer reveals how Patrick Mahomes played through pain during Super Bowl after rough ankle hit
Last night, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes led the team to their second Super Bowl victory in the last five years and showed grit and toughness along the way. The quarterback suffered a high-ankle sprain in the divisional round of the playoffs vs. the Jaguars.
During the team's final drive before halftime, he re-aggravated the ankle when Eagles linebacker T.J. Edwards landed on his ankle as he brought Mahomes to the ground.
The Chiefs' VP of Sports Medicine and Performance, Rick Burkholder, spoke to Sports Illustrated on how the team dealt with Mahomes' injury during the week to keep him afloat during the game.
Patrick Mahomes refused treatment on injured ankle in Super Bowl trib.al/IEzxIUC
Burkholder said:
"That ligament won’t heal any faster than God wants it to. So what [Frymyer] does, she attacks everything around it so that he’s in a good spot, gets his glutes firing, makes sure his hips are mobile and his knee’s over his toes and all that. He wanted to try it out Thursday; [he] looked pretty good on Thursday. Friday, he was amazing. And then today, he just gutted it out. He’s a phenomenal athlete. Just has no quit in him."
“He’s just as close to Superman as we’re going to see”
@AlbertBreer talks to Chiefs coaches and trainers about the latest legendary performance from Patrick Mahomes trib.al/Do4g3LQ
Andy Reid thought about benching Patrick Mahomes at one point for backup Chad Henne
When Mahomes injured his ankle, head coach Andy Reid almost made the decision to bring in backup quarterback Chad Henne.
Reid said that Mahomes was able to handle coming back from tweaking his ankle in the game, but they were starting to warm up Chad Henne.
Reid said:
“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. And so we started warming [backup QB Chad] Henne up, obviously before the half, but he was able to push through the pain, which is unbelievable.”
Mahomes stayed in the game and was able to lead the team to a 38-35 victory over the Eagles. Mahomes finished the game throwing for 182 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions while running for 44 yards.
Mahomes showed that despite the ankle pain, he is still the best quarterback and on his way to winning his second Super Bowl.
If you sue any of the above quotes, please credit Burkholder, Andy Reid, SI, and H/T Sportskeeda