JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ? Early in the second quarter Sunday at TIAA Bank Field, Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs? crown jewel and the stuff the team?s dreams are made of, went on a little jaunt around right end to leave us cringing over how vulnerable he was.
Especially against a surly Jacksonville defense that already had knocked Tyreek Hill out of the game and was apt to treat officials? whistles as guidelines more than rules in the Chiefs? 40-26 season-opening victory.
Before you could even exhale, one play later Mahomes got tangled up and mangled some in a scrum 15 yards or so from a near-brawl that initially distracted from what had happened to him with the Chiefs holding a 17-10 lead.
But, oof, there he was, accepting help to limp off the field and make his way into a pop-up tent to get a private going-over while backup Matt Moore warmed up to potentially appear in his first NFL game since 2017.
The very flicker of a hint of a notion that anything could be awry with the franchise savior ? at least when it comes to legitimate hopes of the first Super Bowl berth in half a century ? was ?very weird? to see, Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark said.
Which was putting it mildly when it came to widespread and tangible panic on social media, memorably encapsulated by @t-1 ? matthew on Twitter when he wrote ? ?please (God) take my leg instead.?
As it happened, amid all the hyper-ventilating and shuddering, Mahomes would say, ?I just kind of rolled my ankle,? and was inside trying to convince Chiefs athletic training personnel ?to just tape it up? more.
?But they wanted to look at it a bit,? Mahomes said, smiling and adding that he was eager to get out from under his first NFL tent experience with temperatures in the mid-90s. ?It was pretty hot in that tent today, I?m going to tell you what, so I was trying to open it back up as soon as possible.?
In the broader sense, encumbered by what coach Andy Reid called a sprained ankle, Mahomes wasn?t exactly able to open it back up the rest of the game.
Instead, though, he didn?t even miss a play as he authored another sort of chapter in his ongoing journey to becoming a legend.
Call this one True Grit.
?Whenever we?ve got guys who are playing through something,? left tackle Eric Fisher said, ?we see it and we appreciate it.?
Mahomes has always been so much more than just an arm, and it?s surely not the first time he?s had the fortitude to play in pain. But it certainly was one of the most obvious times, thus illustrating another dimension of what he means to this team.
Even with the ankle muzzling his ability to go downfield, Mahomes nevertheless threw for 378 yards ? the second-most of his career behind only his 478-yard game against the Los Angeles Rams last season.
