Why Patrick Mahomes is the next transcendent sports icon

Patrick Mahomes had an iconic season in 2018. Will he maintain his performance and take his place as the next transcendent sports icon?

Adam Schein of NFL.com, as part of his recent draft pick ranking, evaluated draft picks from the last nine NFL drafts and picked his favorite from each. Not surprisingly, Patrick Mahomes was his favorite from the 2017 NFL Draft. While this isn’t surprising, he made some tremendous acknowledgements of what he believed was in store for Mahomes. The most interesting of these was his statement that “Mahomes has become the greatest show in all of sports.”

Given this sentiment, on top of multiple publications ranking Mahomes as the best player under 25 years of age, it seems Mahomes has been anointed as the next transcendent sports icon. While it’s extremely early in his career, it’s interesting to think how his character and player traits compare to some of the biggest sports’ names in recent memory. Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods are just a few of the names that often get brought up when having this discussion.

Ali popularized boxing in a way not done before with a combination of charisma and physical dominance. Jordan built on the legacies of players like Julius Erving and so many others and delivered the professional basketball product to the world-stage through the lens of jaw-dropping highlight reels and unique marketing. Tiger Woods dominated what was traditionally considered, at least by mainstream consumers, as an “old-man’s” game with his own brand of fist-pumping swagger.

Each of these athletes possessed multiple characteristics that drove them to the ultimate success in their given sports, but what made them transcendent? This is an interesting question in and of itself. What can we define as transcendent success in sports? For some players, success is defined as either their career earnings, career championships, or their personal brand.

For a select few, those who truly transcend their particular sport and enter into a stratosphere reserved for a ridiculously small percentage of athletes, it’s all the above. It’s annual salary. It’s championships. It’s endorsements. Frankly, it’s power. In the last decade, it has become apparent that certain players are far more powerful than others.

So, what made the athletes mentioned uniquely suited to their achievements? More importantly, does Patrick Mahomes have these traits? I think, of these three athletes, Mahomes most closely resembles Michael Jordan. So, I’ll focus on their similarities for this comparison.