The Japan Times - Mahomes avoids 'G.O.A.T' talk as history beckons

Like most quarterbacks, Mahomes is keen to share the glory with his team-mates, but he also knows that at 29-years-old, he has the chance to add quite a few more chapters to his story beyond Sunday's clash with the Philadelphia Eagles.

So he isn't going to take the bait about whether he is entering the conversation about being the 'G.O.A.T' - Greatest of All Time.

"I'm just trying to be the greatest Patrick Mahomes that I can be," Mahomes told reporters.

"I mean, that's obviously a goal of anyone's is to be the greatest at their profession, but in order to do that, you have to be the greatest that you can be every single day," he said.

"That's on the field and the work ethic I put in or off the field in the father and husband that I am.

"I'm going to try to be the greatest in that way, and whenever I'm done with football, if I leave everything out there the way that I feel like I have so far, as far as effort and mentality, I'll be happy with the results and I'll let others talk about who the greatest is," he added.

Still Mahomes will become one of just four quarterbacks in the history of the NFL to have won more than three Super Bowls should be triumph in Sunday's showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Tom Brady has won the most, with seven Super Bowl titles, while Joe Montana won four with the San Francisco 49ers and Terry Bradshaw the same amount with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

- Learning from legends -

As much as Mahomes likes to play down comparisons with greats from the past, he says he does talk to several former quarterbacks and takes suggestions from them.

"Yeah, I talk to Tom and I talk to Peyton (Manning), I talk to a lot of these guys, and I think the best thing that they do for me is just feed confidence on what I'm doing and how I'm doing it and how I can continue to be great," he said.

"And then if they'll give me any other advice, I always will take it. So it's always great to look at the legends of the sport, especially in my position, and hear what they have to say because they've done it before and they know what it takes to have a (Hall of Fame) gold jacket and have their number retired and everything like that," he said.

Brady will be close to the action in New Orleans as part of the Fox Sports broadcasting team and Mahomes is happy to have him.

But it is a less heralded quarterback, Alex Smith, who Chiefs coach Andy Reid believes played a key role in Mahomes' rise to the top.

In his rookie season, Mahomes spent most of the year on the sidelines as back-up to Smith, allowing him the time to learn about the demands of the position in the NFL before becoming the starter.

"I'm not saying he couldn't have been as great as he is now if he didn't sit, but being with Alex Smith I thought was something you can’t buy," Reid said on Tuesday.

"He was able to sit there and watch a guy who's the ultimate professional, on and off the field, and just get an idea of the lay of the land of how things work in this league. I think that's helped him in that part of his career. I'm sure if he stepped in as a rookie he probably would have been just as great as he is now, but that helped, for sure," he said.

Mahomes concurs.

"It was extremely important to me. Instead of being thrown into the fire and having to figure it out on the fly, I got to learn behind one of the smartest quarterbacks of all time".

T.Shimizu--JT