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Patrick Mahomes Credits Alex Smith for Chiefs Culture and Reveals Text Messages They Exchanged After Super Bowl

By Jackson Thompson

Patrick Mahomes and Alex Smith on the sidelines during the Chiefs' 2017 wildcard against Tennessee.
Patrick Mahomes and Alex Smith on the sidelines during the Chiefs' 2017 wildcard against Tennessee. / Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Before Patrick Mahomes was the Super Bowl MVP, he was Alex Smith's backup. In 2017, Mahomes' rookie season, he watched Smith lead the Chiefs to their third straight playoff berth. Smith bestowed a degree of experience onto Mahomes that molded him into the pro quarterback he would become.

Two years later, Mahomes is a league and Super Bowl MVP. He led double-digit comebacks in all three of the Chiefs' postseason games this year, and he is already being heralded as the leader of the next NFL dynasty.

After Mahomes led the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl in 50 years on Sunday, his former mentor Smith reached out to him via text message to share in the glory.

“He texted me right after the game, saying he enjoyed it just as much as we did,” Mahomes said to ESPN.com. “He wasn’t there, but he was part of it — I think that’s the biggest thing. He built the culture that I came into. He was the guy that led the team to all these successful seasons and built that winning culture.”

As Mahomes enters the next chapter in his journey, he also bares the pressure of Smith's legacy as a mentor. When the story of the Kansas City Chiefs of the 2020s is written, Smith could very well be as significant a figure as any other player who contributed on Sunday and beyond.