K.C. warms up to a guy who throws heat

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The day after Patrick Mahomes was born, his father, Pat, then a relief pitcher with the Minnesota Twins, threw 31⁄3 scoreless innings to earn a save in the second game of a doubleheader at Kauffman Stadium.

On Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium, a short walk across the parking lot from Kauffman, the younger Mahomes, who has had one of the greatest seasons by a quarterback in NFL history, will lead the Chiefs against Tom Brady and the Patriots in the AFC championship game.

If you ask some of his teammates, you can draw a straight line from Mahomes’ baseball pedigree to his football success.

“The thing that struck me about Mahomes is just his calm and collectedness with any situation,” punter Dustin Colquitt said. “He reminds me of a baseball player. His mentality and his love for the game turned football into a pastime in Kansas City.

“It would be hard to say otherwise.” It would be even harder to argue that Mahomes isn’t the biggest reason the Chiefs are playing in their first conference title game in 25 years and are a win away from their first Super Bowl appearance in 50 seasons.

In his first year as a starter, Mahomes threw for 5,097 yards and 50 touchdowns in the regular season. Only Peyton Manning, who set NFL records with 5,477 yards passing and 55 touchdowns for the Broncos in 2013, topped both totals in the same season. Among second-year quarterbacks, only the Dolphins’ Dan Marino, who threw for 5,084 yards and 48 touchdowns in 1984, is even close.

Another thing Manning and Marino have in common? They won AFC titles and MVP awards in their best seasons but lost the Super Bowl.

Now Mahomes finds himself a win away from a conference title and Super Bowl berth. And he’s among a handful of people in the conversation for the MVP award.

“Just to be able to be mentioned for that award is amazing,” Mahomes told NFL.com. “You think about that when you’re a little kid. It’s a credit to my teammates.”

What he really wants is the prize that eluded Manning and Marino in their MVP seasons — a championship.

“We’re trying to reach that ultimate goal,” he said. “This whole city is hungry to get there again and then win it. This community deserves another Super Bowl.

“Just to be able to give back to this community with a Super Bowl would be an extreme honor for me and I want to make sure we take advantage of the opportunity that we have.”

Len Dawson took the Chiefs to two Super Bowls in the 1960s, but 27 starting quarterbacks, including Joe Montana, have tried since then and failed to get them back. Mahomes, who hadn’t been born the last time the Chiefs made it to the AFC title game, has his team on the doorstep.

“He had become a leader after four or five weeks as the team’s starting quarterback. Very, very hard to do as a 23-yearold,” team owner Clark Hunt said of Mahomes, whose passer rating of 113.8 is the best for a quarterback younger than

24.

“But that’s just his personality and the team has rallied around him. They believe in him and that’s very important quality if you want to win that AFC championship game and go to the Super Bowl.”

Mahomes had his pick of sports coming out high school in Texas. As a senior he averaged 19 points and eight rebounds in basketball, and in baseball he played every position but catcher, throwing a no-hitter in which he struck out 16 batters.

His high school baseball coach told the Kansas City Star that Mahomes was the smartest player he ever had.

Mahomes didn’t play football full time until his freshman year at Texas Tech, but over the next two seasons threw for 9,705 yards and 77 touchdowns in 25 games. After his junior season, he declared for the draft and was the second quarterback selected, behind the Bears’ Mitchell Trubisky, going to the Chiefs with the 10th pick.

Colquitt, who has spent 14 years with the Chiefs, says that uncommon success has given Mahomes uncommon confidence.

“God blessed him with a unique talent that you don’t see in every arm or every quarterback,” he said. “It’s fun to watch him just play with those gifts and make everyone better around him.”