Patrick Mahomes suffered the first dramatic injury of his career, undergoing surgery Monday to repair his ACL and LCL. The 30-year-old Kansas City Chiefs quarterback now faces a significant offseason rehab.
Tom Brady knows all about that rehab difficulty.
Appearing on SiriusXM’s Let’s Go! podcast, Brady was asked by Jim Gray if he had any advice for Mahomes.
“The only thing you can do is focus on what's ahead of you and not look back,” Brady said. “And just say, OK, this is part of what my career is going to be. And a lot of people have gone through it and a lot of people have overcome it. You've just got to put as much diligence into the rehab process. And I always feel like the faster you rehab, the faster you can get back to practicing the sport that you know you love. I think sometimes people will pace themselves. Instead of training mode, they're in rehab mode. I think you gotta get through rehab mode as fast as possible and then you get back to training mode. But that requires an all-out commitment and it's the same commitment that the great professional athletes make to be great at their profession. When you go through the rehab process, you need that same level of focus and determination.”
Mahomes is chasing Brady’s legacy. The latest knee injury is another link between the two all-time greats.
Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first game of 2008, his ninth NFL season. Likewise, Mahomes went down in his ninth campaign, albeit late in the season. Both QBs were coming off a Super Bowl loss the prior season, and both had three Super Bowl wins prior to the injury.
Brady would rebound for four additional Super Bowls in his career.
“But it's a tough rehab. It's one of the toughest rehabs,” Brady said. “I just remember every day pushing myself. And it's always the same amount of pain and discomfort, except you're making progress through that pain and discomfort, which is a hard psychological thing to battle. You feel like, God, every day, it doesn't feel right. Except you're gaining range of motion and you're gaining strength and you are on the road to recovery. So I wish him the very best.”
Mahomes suffering his injury in mid-December offers an additional challenge. A nine-month recovery will have him pushing to be ready for the 2026 campaign, whereas Brady had an entire year to get healthy. One big question for Mahomes is whether the knee injury will sap any of the dynamic playmaking outside the pocket that has highlighted his career through the first nine seasons.