Mahomes: 'Nowhere near' reaching GOAT status
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes believes he's "nowhere near" entering the conversation for football's greatest-ever player.
"You have to build a consistency of a career," Mahomes told TIME's Sean Gregory. "You see that in any sport. I've had a great run. I think I've done a great job so far. But it's hard to take away from what Tom (Brady) did for so long, what Peyton Manning did, or Aaron Rodgers. There are so many guys, they were at such a high level for such a long time.
"In order to be in that conversation, you have to do that on a year-to-year basis. You can't take it for granted that you did it the year before."
The 28-year-old captured his third league title last season after a thrilling 25-22 overtime win in Super Bowl LVIII. Mahomes has won many accolades in his first seven seasons and is just 83 yards away from becoming the Chiefs' all-time passing yards leader.
Although Mahomes won't yet include himself in the GOAT conversation, he admits he's had a prolific start to his career.
"I've had at least one of the top three starts to a career," he said.
While retirement isn't at the forefront of the six-time Pro Bowler's mind, he indicated the quality of his family life could play a large role in the timing of that decision.
"I've looked, if I played until Tom's age, my daughter would be 19, 20 years old. I would love to play that long. At the same time, I want to be there for my daughter. If I can do that, I'll continue to play. But if I feel like it's taking away from my family time, that's when I'll know it's time to go," Mahomes said.
The two-time league MVP says Brady "skewered people's brains" by making the sport look easy as he played into his 40s. "So I'm about to make sure that I get rid of this dad bod if I want to play to 45," Mahomes said.
Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion, holds most of the league's passing records after authoring a Hall of Fame-worthy career that began in 2000 and concluded after the 2022 season. Mahomes, who has emerged as one of the faces of the league since becoming a starter in 2018, remains focused on building his own dynasty.
"At the end of my time, I just want to say that I didn't leave anything out there," Mahomes said. "My family and football are the first things I want to be great at. If I can go out there and say that I gave everything I had on the football field, expectations are what they are and whatever is going to happen is going to happen. And I can be satisfied with that."
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