Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was named the NFL MVP at Saturday night’s NFL Honors ceremony in Atlanta. The 23-year-old quarterback received 41 of 50 votes from a nationwide panel of media members who cover the league. The other nine votes went to New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees.
Mahomes is the youngest player to win the award since Dan Marino in 1984. Both received the award at age 23.
Prior to receiving the MVP award, Mahomes was also named the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year. He is the 28th player in NFL history to win both awards in the same season.
Upon winning Offensive Player of the Year award, Mahomes made the following remarks.
“God is amazing. If it wasn’t for Him, I wouldn’t be here.” After thanking the team and others, he ended with “Go Chiefs!”
When accepting the MVP award, he struck a similar tone.
“I’m truly honored,” he said humbly, going on to mention the rich history of the award and mentioning some of the previous recipients.
“I’m humbled to share this honor with you,” he said. “This season was special and a lot of people helped me get to this point.”
He went on to thank God again, then his Mom and Dad, his brother and sister, and long-time girlfriend Brittany.
He then thanked the Chiefs organization, the Hunt family, the coaches, and fellow players, remarking ”This is an award for all of us.”
He finished by thanking the “Chiefs kingdom.”
“Your passion and love is unmatched,” he exclaimed. “You’re here, no matter when and where.”
“This is just the beginning,” he reassured everyone. “We have a long ways to go. Thank you.”
It should be noted that Mahomes – even when some say he had every reason to – still didn’t make it about himself.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Mahomes explained in a phone interview shortly after winning the award. “But it’s a credit to all those guys I play with. It’s not just me. I got the trophy, but it’s this team that was so special and the reason why I got it. It’s a credit to being in a great situation and having great coaches around me with Coach [Andy] Reid, coach [Eric] Bieniemy, Coach [Mike] Kafka, and coach Nags (Matt Nagy) last year, and then being with a lot of great players that can make me look good and make it easy on me.
“And then having Alex [Smith] last year, it really helped me learn how to become a Pro’s Pro and sped up the process of me learning the difference between college and the NFL.
“I just got put in a great spot. It’s truly humbling to be a part of a group like this.”
In his first season as a starter, Mahomes led the league in passing touchdowns with 50, as well as total offense with 5,198 yards, in a season that saw Kansas City win the AFC West for the third consecutive time, and play in the franchise’s first conference championship game since 1993.
He became just the second player to ever throw for 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns in the same season.
Mahomes won 14 national honors this season:
AFC OPOW – Week 1 & 2
AFC OPOM – Sept
Pro Bowler
Pro Bowl MVP
AP First-Team All-Pro
PFWA OPOY
PFWA MVP
PFF MVP
CBS MVP
Sports Illustrated MVP
NFL Fed Ex Air POY
NFL OPOY
AP NFL MVP
Mahomes seems to be the new face of the NFL, and has had a crazy week in Atlanta during this week before the Super Bowl.
“It’s been crazy for sure,” he said. “It’s a little different than being in Kansas City, I mean, people are coming up and taking pictures with me everywhere I go. It’s fun. I enjoy it, but I’m going to be happy to get back to Kansas City and be able to go back to the facility and work out.”
With the Chiefs having come so close to playing in the Super Bowl this year, the past few days being in the center of all the media hoopla surrounding Super Bowl week has only intensified Mahomes’ desire to lead the Chiefs to the big game next year.
“I’m very confident,” Mahomes said about the chances of getting the Chiefs to the Super Bowl next year. “We have a lot of the same pieces coming back. We were just short. We could have easily been in the game this year and driving by the Super Bowl every single day down here, it’s just giving me more and more motivation to find a way to get better and hopefully inspire my teammates to get better, too.”
When asked when he would start preparing for next season Mahomes answered quickly.
“Day after the Super Bowl,” he said.
- Lee Hartman | MetroVoiceNews.com
