All good things must come to an end. Most players don’t finish their careers with their original teams. Will Patrick Mahomes be any different?
For the past several months, the offseason drama concerning Aaron Rodgers has been a near constant. It finally came to a head when the Green Bay Packers officially ended the relationship and traded Rodgers to the New York Jets a few weeks ago.
This tumultuous ending got me thinking about the way most players end their careers: playing on a different team than they started. For a Chiefs fan, it’s a bit hard to swallow when it comes to their quarterback.
It’s an inevitable reality, though (hopefully) many years away. There will come a day when the Kansas City Chiefs will no longer employ Patrick Mahomes as their quarterback. Few sports players spend their entire careers with the same team. Even the GOATs like Tom Brady and Michael Jordan found themselves in new homes.
Few exceptions exist to this rule. The late Kobe Bryant is the only one I can think of off the top of my head, having spent his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers. The Chiefs themselves were the “change of scenery” for Joe Montana.
And now, Aaron Rodgers adds his name to the long list of players who don’t quite end up where they started—ironically following in his predecessor’s footsteps who experienced a similar fate as Brett Favre was also traded to the New York Jets.
Let’s be honest here: some breakups are prettier than others. The saga between Rodgers and the Packers has seemed agonizingly slow compared to most. Some team trades are marked with animosity. This one felt more like a slow burn. Even Packers fans seem more ready to move on than they are sad.
I hope that doesn’t happen with Mahomes and the Chiefs. I hope that Mahomes retires with Kansas City, and not just with a one-day, “welcome home” contract. But since I know that that is statistically not likely to happen, I hope it doesn’t end as the marriage between Rodgers and the Packers did. Or like the San Francisco 49ers and Joe Montana. Or like the Seattle Seahawks and Russell Wilson id. Or, God forbid, like the Houston Texans and Deshaun Watson.
Messy. Not fun. Heartbreaking.
Mahomes signed a massive 10-year contract just a few years ago. It signaled that he wants to stay in Kansas City. More than that, he’s invested a lot in the area and will continue to do so. But it will all come to an end eventually. I’d prefer it to be closer to the breakup between the New England Patriots and Tom Brady.
Patriots fans still love Tom Brady. It was about as amicable as it could be. Hard, but amicable. They had won six rings together. There wasn’t much to complain about. Both sides just knew it was time. Jordan left the Bulls after six rings too. Everyone has their last dance.
The Chiefs can learn a lot from the Packers-Rodgers debacle—the first and foremost point being not to draft his replacement instead of giving him more weapons. That really falls into the larger picture of keeping Mahomes happy. This can be harder than it looks (part of the reason Tom Brady left New England is that even he got sick of the environment).
But I think the Chiefs are off to a great start with Mahomes. They consistently make it a point to improve the team around him rather than expect him to carry everything (even though he probably could). They also sound willing to already rework his contract soon.
I don’t know what the final outcome will be between the Chiefs and Mahomes. Maybe we’ll get lucky and get a transition similar to Steve Young and the Niners or Andrew Luck and the Colts. But all of those great players still rose to prominence from the ashes of the burned relationships of their predecessors. I definitely don’t want to see that.
Mahomes and the Chiefs have a long and incredible future together that hopefully includes many more rings. How and when it comes to an end remains to be seen. Chiefs Kingdom should keep enjoying the ride.