Patrick Mahomes continues to climb the rankings on every NFL career passing list. He already ranks in the top 50 in passing yards, top 30 in passing touchdowns, and is at or near the top of any list of achievements before the age of 30.
Kansas City's star signal-caller has outdistanced himself from many Hall of Famers during his illustrious career. That's no surprise to anyone. How far he'll go, only time will tell. But there is one former quarterback whose connection to Mahomes is particularly unique, if only for the pettiness factor.
Many Chiefs fans are familiar with the situation that dates back to 2019. A popular Chiefs radio voice gleefully shared on a Chiefs podcast that the then-24-year-old Mahomes had already thrown for “36% of Troy Aikman's career touchdowns, in about 8% of the games.” It was spoken not to poke the bear, but merely to illuminate a statistic that seemed more like a video game.
Aikman uncovered the tweet and quoted it with a now-famous response:
iCYMI: Talk to me when when he has 33% of my Super Bowl Titles https://t.co/Ba8kjPRnDs
— Troy Aikman (@TroyAikman) September 24, 2019
It was never meant to be honest shade thrown Aikman's way; this fun-loving fan favorite was caught on audio sharing a remarkable stat until someone at The Athletic tweeted the quote. I feel like I need to say this again: it's literally a stat. And then things got a little out of hand.
In his clapback, Aikman, a three-time Super Bowl winner with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s, essentially dared the young Chiefs quarterback to win a Super Bowl.
Mahomes, of course, completed the challenge just a few months later when Kansas City defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV. Even more fun than that, Mahomes completed 100% of Aikman's career Super Bowls by defeating the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII and then the Niners again in Super Bowl LVIII.
Sometime during the Giants game on Sunday Night Football, Mahomes will surpass Aikman in career passing yards. Mahomes finished his 20s with 32,797 passing yards (third all-time before a player's 30th birthday, behind only Matthew Stafford and Peyton Manning). He needs just 146 yards to officially move into 45th all-time in league history.
They won't stop the game, and it probably won't be announced over the loudspeaker unless the Giants' PA announcer is extremely petty. But Chiefs fans can chuckle at the water cooler this week about that amusing Twitter exchange from years ago. Aikman, unfortunately, won't be on the call that night, but if he were, he'd probably just advise Mahomes, “Just beat the Giants.”