Patrick Mahomes Appears to Re-aggravate High Ankle Sprain
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes appeared to re-aggravate his high ankle sprain late in the second quarter of Super Bowl 56 against Philadelphia on Sunday.
Mahomes was running out of the pocket on a third down play with less than two minutes remaining before he was tackled from behind by the Eagles’ T.J. Edwards. In the process, his ankle was caught briefly underneath the tackle, allowing that ankle to be rolled just enough to apparently re-aggravate the injury.
Mahomes was in obvious pain on the ground for a moment. He then got up and tried to jog off the field, but he had difficulty putting weight on the leg. Once he got to the sideline, he was monitored by trainers and was in obvious pain. At one point, he put his head on the shoulder of one of the trainers.
At the time the Chiefs were down to the Eagles, 21-14. Philadelphia went into the half up, 24-14. There was no official word on Mahomes to start the second half, but he did return to the field to start the third quarter.
Mahomes played the rest of the game and led the Chiefs to a 38-35 victory. He reportedly refused treatment at halftime and played through the pain, according to Sports Illustrated.
“He just wanted to be left alone,” coach Andy Reid said. “Those high ankle sprains, you tweak them and they hurt like heck. And then you gotta kind of let it calm down a little bit. And some guys can handle it, and some guys can’t. And so we started warming [backup QB Chad] Henne up, obviously before the half, but he was able to push through the pain, which is unbelievable.”
It wasn’t clear if Mahomes was going to return for the second half, but after a few minutes he was reviewing plays on a tablet with the coaching staff. There was no update on his condition going into halftime, which is longer than a typical NFL game because of the halftime show.
Mahomes was 8-of-13 passing for 89 yards and one touchdown.
Earlier this week Mahomes won his second NFL Most Valuable Player Award. He went into the Super Bowl trying to become the 13th quarterback to win at least two Super Bowls as a starter.
Mahomes received 48 of the 50 first-place votes for MVP. The other finalists were Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, along with Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson.
Mahomes also became the 10th player in league history to win the award more than once. Mahomes won the award for the first time in 2018, his second year in the NFL.
Mahomes led the league with 5,250 passing yards and 41 touchdowns in 2022.
Mahomes played three seasons at Texas Tech before leaving school early for the 2017 NFL Draft, where he was a first-round choice. In his final season at Texas Tech in 2016, he threw for 5,052 yards with 41 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
Last year Mahomes was inducted in the Texas Tech Hall of Fame and into the Ring of Honor.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard
