Just like the rest of his colleagues around the NFL, adjusting to a 17-game schedule will be a learning curve for Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance, the 25-year-old opened about the league’s decision to tack on one more contest to an already grueling season.
“I mean obviously it’ll be different and it’ll be something that we’ll have to adjust to,” he admitted. “But it’s something that we had talked about in the collective bargaining agreement. Whatever your beliefs are you got to go out there and adjust, and do whatever you can to be the best football player you can be every single day. I’ll be trying to figure out ways to take care of my body more and more, so you can adjust your body for a 17 game regular season.”
In order to make space for an extra regular season game, the NFL decided to nix a preseason match, cutting it down from four games to three.
Per Albert Beer, the 17th game will be an inter-conference matchup pitting opponents like-standing in their respective division against each other. Because Kansas City took the AFC West in the 2020 season, they’ll square off with another division champion, in their case the NFC North. Consequently, the Chiefs will play the Green Bay Packers.
Re: 17-game slate, the inter-conference rotation for ’21 …
Full crossover: NFC East/AFC West, NFC North/AFC North, NFC South/AFC East, NFC West, AFC South.
1-game crossover (1 v. 1, 2 v. 2, etc.): NFC East/AFC East, NFC North/AFC West, NFC South/AFC South, NFC West/AFC North.
It’ll certainly take a toll on his body, but Mahomes is ready for the challenge. Especially if that means another Super Bowl appearance is at the end of the struggle.
“You’ll have to change your day-to-day work, work ethic, work involvement and how much you’re going to put on your body every single day because you want to be in that Super Bowl again and you want to be playing for a championship and you want to make sure your body can take the workload of that and adding in another game is adding more to your body. So you have to make sure that you’re prepared,” Mahomes explained.
Mahomes Also Opened up About Being a #GirlDad
In addition to undergoing surgery to repair a turf toe, becoming a new father has also absorbed most of the 2018 NFL MVP’s time. Mahomes and fiancee Brittany Matthews welcomed baby girl Sterling Skye Mahomes on February 20. In the same interview with Yahoo Finances, Mahomes gushed about being a first-time father and the trade-off of an irregular sleep schedule since her arrival.
“It has been awesome,” he said. “Luckily enough, Brittany’s been a champ. I mean she’s helped me a ton, I just try to be supportive as possible — so I do what I can. But at the same time she pretty much handles everything and I’m just kind of a cheerleader on the sideline.”
“I mean I’m still able to get the workouts and stuff done in the morning and then I come home and do a lot of just holding her and trying to figure out which way she isn’t crying and try to keep her in that position.”
Mahomes and Matthews Celebrated Easter in Style
Both Mahomes and Matthews have been very active on sharing little details of life as a family of three. In honor of Sterling’s one-month anniversary, Mahomes shared an adorable photo of him cradling her. On Sunday, Mahomes posted another heartwarming photo of him and Matthews celebrating Easter in Kansas City.
On Twitter, Matthews joked that even with the responsibilities of a newborn, they still made it to church on time and through service without any disruptions.
Made it to Church ON TIME, & made it through church with baby girl, GOD IS GOOD!🙏🏼🐣💛 #HappyEaster
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Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes Gives His Honest Opinion on 17-Game NFL Season