With the 10th overall pick of the 2017 NFL Draft, the Kansas City Chiefs selected Patrick Mahomes, marking the first time they had drafted a quarterback in the first round since 1983. The rest is history.
Mahomes didn't immediately jump onto the scene as the starter, that wouldn't be until 2018, but once he became the official starting quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs, the entire trajectory of the franchise changed for the better.
That wouldn't have happened if Mahomes had listened to a crucial piece of advice from one of his father's former teammates though. While appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, former MLB star Alex Rodriguez shared a story involving Mahomes when he was just 10 years old, which included some advice that the young Mahomes asked Rodriguez for.
"Every day [Mahomes] would ask me, 30 days in a row, 'Can you give me one piece of advice?'," Rodriguez said before reminding everyone that Mahomes played both baseball and football at the time. "So I said, 'All right, Patrick... I'm gonna give you some good advice here. Now listen up' and his eyes got really wide. I said... 'I know you like baseball and I know you like football but trust me when I say this, baseball's where the money is.' I said, 'Football's just for fun but you're gonna make your money in baseball like your dad and I' and I'm glad he didn't take my advice."
Alex Rodriguez told a 10-year-old Patrick Mahomes to stick with baseball, not football
Rodriguez isn't the only one glad that Mahomes didn't listen to his advice here, as the Chiefs organization would not be in the position it is right now if he wasn't the one taking the snaps and throwing the ball every week. He immediately made this team a Super Bowl contender, leading them to a number one overall seed and the AFC Championship Game in the 2018 season, the first time K.C. had made it there since the 1993 season.
While that year's Chiefs team ultimately fell short, they'd go on to reach the Super Bowl in four of the next five seasons and would win three of those four Super Bowls. The Chiefs went from a team that hadn't reached or won the Super Bowl in 50 years to becoming a team expected to make the big game -- and win it -- every year with Mahomes leading the way.
It's understandable why Rodriguez, who played in the major leagues for over two decades and spent 12 years of his career with the New York Yankees, would have given Mahomes this advice. After all, Rodriguez was a three-time league MVP and was a member of the 2009 Yankees team that won the World Series. He certainly had a great career and felt he was giving sound advice to a teammate's son.
Thankfully, Mahomes didn't listen, and Chiefs fans are forever grateful that he didn't.