When Patrick Mahomes returned behind center to lead the 9-1 AFC West-leading Kansas City Chiefs in a highly anticipated matchup against the 9-1 NFC West dynamo Rams in Los Angeles on Monday night, November 19, he was looking to carry on with one of the most historic first-year campaigns that any NFL quarterback has ever put together. Good thing the Texas Tech alum stuck with his gut and ignored Alex Rodriguez’s recommendation that he put down the pigskin and pick up the cowhide.
A-Rod is currently in the U.K., where he is attending meetings and touring London Stadium in anticipation of a two-game series that the venue will host between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in 2019. Given his background as one of the greatest infielders to ever play the game, there is a wealth of information that Omnisport could have gotten while picking the athlete-turned-analyst’s brain on baseball. But as Yahoo Sports reports, there is this one story involving a young Patrick Mahomes that they just had to get Rodriguez’s side of, and it involves a conversation that the retired slugger, at this point, wishes he never sat the 23-year-old MVP candidate down to have.
“I said, ‘Now listen to me, if you don’t hear one thing that I ever tell you, you better listen to this: There is no money, there is no future, there is no history in football. You have to play baseball,’” Rodriguez admitted once telling the son of his former Texas Rangers teammate, pitcher Pat Mahomes.
A-Rod’s remarks corroborate the story, as told by Mahomes himself during an interview on the Dan Patrick Show some weeks ago. Mahomes reminded Patrick that Rodriguez’s advice was not necessarily unique, seeing how most of the folks he grew up around figured he would follow in his father’s footsteps. All the way up through his high school years in Whitehouse, Texas, Mahomes’ gains on the football field were seen as secondary to expectations that, like the elder Pat, he’d someday hold his own on a major league mound.
The Detroit Tigers certainly thought that would be the case when they selected him in the 2014 Major League Baseball draft. However, Mahomes chose instead to roll the dice on football by leaving the offer on the table and committing to Texas Tech. Before long, he was making a name for himself as a gifted passer whose running ability made him a versatile threat. And in having tied the NCAA single-game passing yards record with 734, and claiming the all-time single-game record for total offense with 819 yards, it was only a matter of time before the NFL took notice.
With Mahomes having tossed a league-leading 31 touchdowns and thrown for over 300 yards in eight of the ten games he’s played, A-Rod confesses that he, of all people, has certainly taken notice – and its no longer a question as to what sport he was born to play. When asked about his advice to Mahomes, Rodriguez replied that the young signal-caller “reminded me of that recently and boy, am I glad he did not listen to me!”
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