"Tom Brady did it for 20 years": Patrick Mahomes' contract restructure has fans drawing comparisons to NFL icon
After Patrick Mahomes won his third Super Bowl, talk inevitably turned towards whether he can match Tom Brady's haul of seven. The GOAT's record seemed untouchable until the Kansas City phenomenon put them squarely in his sights.
Now, the Chiefs quarterback is trying to do something even the former Patriots and Buccaneers quarterback could not do. Having matched Tom Brady by winning back-to-back Super Bowls, Patrick Mahomes now wants to go further and become the first team to win three titles in a row.
To do so, he's taking a leaf out of the former NFL quarterback's playbook. Reports recently emerged that the Chiefs star is restructuring his contract so that an additional $21.6 million becomes available under the salary cap. By doing so, Kansas City can attract the best talent and give him the best weapons to succeed.
That's something Tom Brady used to do too. He was never the highest-paid quarterback in the NFL despite being the winningest. Doing so allowed him to retain players around him that made the team better and allowed him to get more rings. It was a smart decision, and Mahomes certainly seems to be copying that.
Fans, at least, had the same opinion on X. Whether it's a conscious decision or not by the Kansas City star to copy the GOAT, it certainly looked that way to many. Some even wondered why more quarterbacks did not take the same approach. Here are some of the reactions on the social media platform.
Patrick Mahomes' restructure slightly different from the way Tom Brady operated
Patrick Mahomes' choice to restructure the contract frees up money in the present but pushes the money owed to him to a later date. Therefore, it's not a contract renegotiation where the player agrees to take less money than is owed to him in total.
Tom Brady, meanwhile, made a ton of money through endorsements and other ventures to increase his worth but he got them coming to him because of his success on the field.
He ensured that by never being the highest-paid quarterback in the league. Therefore, he was freeing up space perpetually and not temporarily as a contract restructure would.
It helped that the Patriots quarterback had a great business sense and a supermodel wife whose net worth was higher than his, but it was an approach that worked and made the team a dynasty.