The ankle—that famous, concerning, inflamed ankle—had a day Sunday. Patrick Mahomes limped and hobbled on it. But he also threw and dashed and spun on it. And, with no less than a third trip to the Super Bowl in the past four seasons at stake, the Chiefs turned to Mahomes and Mahomes turned … on that ankle, barreling toward glory and Super Bowl LVII.
The backdrop: Chiefs-Bengals, AFC championship game, late in the fourth quarter, third-and-4 at the Cincinnati 47-yard line, tie game. Mahomes dropped back, scanned the field, saw no one open and scrambled to his right. If pain shot through his right leg, he didn’t show it. It didn’t slow him. He picked up five yards and, when he reached the Cincinnati sideline, he received a light—and, it turns out, fortuitous—shove from defensive end Joseph Ossai. The unnecessary roughness penalty pushed Kansas City into field goal range. Harrison Butker’s 45-yard field goal pushed the Chiefs into the season’s final game.
For a franchise that went a half century between Super Bowl appearances, this, all of this—conference championship games, Lamar Hunt trophies raised over so many heads, drama and delirium—has become routine. The Chiefs secured their latest late-January triumph, 23–20, behind a rabid defense and a frozen crowd, after a week of terrible injury news, with more injuries Sunday. Afterward, Clark Hunt, Lamar’s son and current franchise CEO, nodded at Mahomes, saying, “Superman put on his cape.”
