KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A few days after a video went viral of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes carving his way through the lane, weaving between defenders and finishing a a series of spin moves with a layup in a pick-up basketball game, the newly minted NFL MVP walked into general manager Brett Veach's office at the Truman Sports Complex.
“Hey, man, you’re breaking a lot of ankles out there; just make sure you’re not breaking your own," said Veach, who described the conversation as lighthearted Thursday in a teleconference with beat writers. "I don’t think we need that.”
The organizational suggestion came on the heels of a brief conversation Veach said he had earlier in the day with Mahomes' agent.
You thought Patrick Mahomes was just the NFL MVP? 🔥
— ESPN (@espn) February 5, 2019
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While it's certainly starting to seem like there's nothing Mahomes can't do, it's also abundantly clear there are things the Chiefs don't want the man likely to sign the league's first $200 million contract to do.
"We were laughing but … the problem with Pat is he does everything 100 miles per hour and is so dang competitive," Veach said.
Mahomes — who obliterated the Chiefs' records for passing yards (5,097) and touchdowns (50) last season, becoming only the second QB to reach those plateaus in the same season (Peyton Manning, 2013) — took the advice in stride, according to Veach.
"I'm quite aware that a lot of our guys play basketball and like to have fun," Veach said. "With Pat and with all those guys, they've just got to be smart. We've got a good thing going here and certainly have high aspirations next year to win a Super Bowl. We need everyone on the field and we need everyone reporting to St. Joe."
Veach said during a wide-ranging interview Thursday that some of the financial decisions made dating back to last offseason were done with Mahomes in mind, such as the way the franchise structured contracts and how they approached free agency and the draft.
"We were prepared for Pat to have success and be a franchise quarterback," Veach said, "so this process of structuring ourselves for the next three, four, five years started about a year ago."
