MLB Legend Recalls Giving Patrick Mahomes ‘Worst Advice Ever’ in TIME Tribute

Getty Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people again in 2024.

Kansas City Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes has once again earned a place among TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, sources told Heavy.

The three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback was honored by TIME and Hall of Fame QB Peyton Manning in 2023, ranking among the global “Titans” last year. In 2024, Mahomes has been tributed by MLB legend Alex Rodriguez, and the former baseball superstar recalled a funny memory upon toasting the Chiefs QB.

“Patrick Mahomes has always had the heart of a champion,” Rodriguez wrote via Time.com.

Recounting: “I remember Pat as a young kid, coming to practice with his dad to tee up baseballs for me and my teammates. I distinctly remember giving him the worst advice ever. ‘Don’t play football. The money’s in baseball.’”

“I’m happy to be wrong and glad he didn’t listen!” Rodriguez joked. Continuing: “Patrick has transcended the game of football to become one of the most respected athletes of all time, both on and off the field. His insatiable desire to win is outdone only by his passion to give back and make the world around him better.”

“Patrick’s legacy will live on far beyond his playing days,” Rodriguez concluded. “And—as evidenced by his back-to-back Super Bowl wins—he’s not done yet!”

You can read TIME’s 2024 profile on Mahomes here, written by Sean Gregory.

Patrick Mahomes Admits ‘First Love’ Was Baseball, Not Football

Imagine if Mahomes never played in the NFL? “Mahomes grew up around major-league clubhouses,” Gregory noted in his feature.

“One thousand percent, baseball was my first love,” Mahomes told the reporter. Who explained that “his father pitched [in the MLB] until 2003, when Patrick was 8.”

Of course, Mahomes might have been able to go pro in baseball too.

“He starred in three sports (football, basketball, baseball) at Whitehouse High School,” Gregory informed. “The Detroit Tigers drafted him in the 37th round, but Mahomes decided to attend Texas Tech, where he was recruited to play both football and baseball.”

“My goal was to go to college, play three years of football, three years of baseball, and go [back] into the MLB draft,” Mahomes admitted to TIME. That quickly changed when Texas Tech football HC Kliff Kingsbury saw his new quarterback play every day.

“Just his playmaking ability and the different arm angles and touch and incredible accuracy, it was phenom-type stuff,” Kingsbury said when speaking with TIME. “Even when the game seemed chaotic, it was never moving too fast for him. I had just never seen that before.”

After a six-touchdown debut his freshman year, followed by college baseball that spring, Kingsbury knew he must convince Mahomes to prioritize football.

“Kingsbury told him that if he spent one year fully focused on football, an NFL team would pick him in the first round,” Gregory relayed, and Mahomes eventually agreed.

“After two more baseball-less seasons in which he threw for nearly 10,000 yards combined and 77 touchdown passes, the Chiefs—who were coming off a 12-4 season and already had a Pro Bowl quarterback, Alex Smith, under center—took Mahomes with the 10th overall pick of the 2017 draft,” the reporter went on.

The rest is history.

Patrick Mahomes Learned Valuable Lesson From Alex Rodriguez, Despite Ignoring Bad ‘Advice’

Although Mahomes ignored Rodriguez’s childhood advice to choose a career in baseball over football, he did learn something very important from the MLB slugger.

Patrick Mahomes Sr. spent the 2001 season with Rodriguez on the Texas Rangers, where the latter’s “work ethic left an impression on the young athlete,” according to Gregory.

“I hated when my dad made me hit off a tee,” Mahomes remembered during the interview with TIME. “I’m like, ‘I just want you to throw it to me.’ I go watch Alex Rodriguez, he’s leading the league in home runs, and he’s hitting off the tee every single day. It taught me that even whenever I get to where I want to get to, I can’t let the fundamentals slip. I can’t stop working and doing the little things. That’s what makes people great.”

Even now, Mahomes acknowledges that dreams of a two-sport career haven’t left his mind.

“I’ve talked to the [Kansas City] Royals,” the quarterback told TIME. “And if I can maybe go out to a spring training, I’m not opposed to that. I’ll get it approved by the Chiefs and everything like that. But maybe one of these years I go out there and see what I got.”

For the fans already fearing the worst, don’t worry. Mahomes added that he probably wouldn’t play in any games, voicing that “I can at least practice with them.”

Mahomes joined the Royals’ ownership group in November of 2019.