Patrick Mahomes Has Been Offered a Ketchup Incentive from Heinz

Getty Images Patrick Mahomes celebrating a touchdown.

Fans of the Kansas City Chiefs should be thanking the Heinz company for giving their quarterback a little extra motivation moving forward. For those of you who haven’t heard, Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes apparently likes putting Ketchup on his steak. Not A1 Sauce, or anything else that could pass as “Steak Sauce” but ketchup. Needless to say, everybody couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

Apparently, ketchup on steak is not popular to the ordinary folks (I agree.) But a young Patrick Mahomes does not care. He loves ketchup, and apparently uses it quite often on foods that make it all a bit unusual. Now, with Mahomes’ newfound fame, he is hesitant about looking odd to his waiters/waitresses when he desires ketchup on something that nobody would typically apply ketchup too.

Recently, ESPN followed Mahomes around to figure out what it’s like to be a record-setting quarterback for the Chiefs as a two-year veteran. And of course, all everybody is worried about is whether it’s true that Patrick Mahomes applies Ketchup to his steak or not. Yes, it is true. And here is the textual evidence, courtesy of CBS Sports.

The Truth Is Out

The other day, in Mahomes’ apartment in the Country Club Plaza neighborhood of Kansas City, his grandfather asked him, “What’s it like to be famous?” For one thing, it means he eats less ketchup. He spent most of his life putting ketchup on everything. He would get bottles of it for his birthday. But now that everyone is watching every move he makes, he is sheepish about ordering ketchup. At a restaurant recently, his mom, Randi, recognized an unfilled desire as he dove into a steak. “Just ask for it,” Randi said. “I know you want it.” Patrick wouldn’t. So she asked for the ketchup and slipped it to him.

Crazy right? Now, that’s not even the good part about this story. So, Heinz decided that they would jump on this story and use it as a marketing tool like any company typically would. They decided to set an incentive for Mahomes that definitely is not on his contract with the Chiefs. Well, at least we think it isn’t.

Anyway, Heinz decided to set a goal for Mahomes’, who currently leads the NFL in touchdown passes through 11 weeks. If Patrick Mahomes can throw for a total of 57 touchdowns in 2018, then Heinz will give him free ketchup for life. So far, Mahomes has tossed 31 touchdowns. Now, Mahomes has seven more weeks to throw 26 touchdown passes.

It’s definitely not out of the question for him, but it’s going to be hard for two reasons. One, that’s a whole lot of touchdown passes. Even with Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins, Kareem Hunt, and Travis Kelce, that’s a tough task to accomplish. The second reason being that the Chiefs are on a roll, and currently on top of the AFC.

They could have the playoffs clinched very soon, and that most likely means that Mahomes regular season would be cut a bit short. However, if he is close to his goal by Week 16-17, his head coach Andy Reid would definitely be cool enough to consider letting him toss a touchdown or two. At least, that’s what I think.