As Patrick Mahomes limped and hobbled and grimaced around Chiefs headquarters, he decided to trick himself back to health. Mind will heal body. Ankle? What ankle?
Well … the one that doctors examined after a divisional playoff win over the Jaguars, their diagnosis a dreaded high ankle sprain—and not a mild one. They labeled the sprain between Grade II (partially torn ligaments) and Grade III (fully torn). “One of those that most guys sit out six weeks for,” Andy Reid, his coach, told Sports Illustrated 10 days before Super Bowl LVII.
Don’t worry about me, Mahomes told anyone who asked. His father wasn’t so sure. Patrick Mahomes Sr. knew his namesake possessed an unusually high pain tolerance, perhaps as a result of playing three sports year-round for most of his life. At times, he wondered if it was more intrinsic, one more thing about Patrick Lavon Mahomes II that defies explanation.
