The chaotic 60 minutes of Patrick Mahomes’ media session at Super Bowl’s Opening Night
The cameras, iPhones and notepads stacked 20 deep and stretched equally wide. Through the maze of a mosh pit of reporters fighting to preserve or improve positioning, the man centermost in this Super Bowl sat at a podium.
Do you believe in ghosts?
How many Oscar movies can you name?
Can I have your shoes?
Super Bowl week is underway.
Patrick Mahomes is its star, a 24-year-old second-year starter and reigning MVP trying to lead the Kansas City Chiefs to their first Super Bowl in half a century. He made his first media appearance of the week Monday at Opening Night inside Miami’s Marlins Park, a circus narrowing on him.
“You have to accept the excitement that it is,” Mahomes said. “It’s amazing to be here, to be in this atmosphere, to be at this podium. It’s where you want to be when you start training camp in St. Joe, Missouri. For me, to be in this moment, I’m just enjoying it as much as possible.”
The questions of Opening Night covered the X’s and O’s; they covered family and friends; they were sensible and straight-forward. They were also wacky and sometimes seemingly impossible to answer.
On seven occasions, Mahomes answered a question regarding his superstitions. On five more, he replied to queries regarding his pre-game rituals.
He greeted each with his usual smile. Most of his answers started with his preferred first word: “Yeah ...” Greeted a few of the more unusual ones, even.
Yes, he believes in ghosts, though he’s never seen one. He can’t name a single movie up for this year’s Academy Awards. He will sign your shoes, but he’s keeping his bright red Adidas sneakers.
He spoke for an hour, following the league-organized format and duration for this session, as teammates flanked him all around the outfield of Marlins Park.
“Opening Night, it’s great to finally be here,” he said. “You have to enjoy it.”
Half an hour into the session, he needed to towel off. As the 60 minutes finally expired, he stood up from the riser and looked down to those sneakers.
“Dang, man,” he said. “My feet are asleep.”
This story was originally published January 27, 2020 at 9:49 PM with the headline "The chaotic 60 minutes of Patrick Mahomes’ media session at Super Bowl’s Opening Night."