Playing Multiple Sports Made Mahomes A Better Football Player
Specialization at a young age has become the norm for a large number of athletes. Many parents believe their kids’ best chance at success and making it to the next level is to focus solely on one sport. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes played multiple sports in high school, something Adam Cook, Mahomes’ high school football coach at Whitehouse High School (Texas) thinks more players should do.
“Patrick Mahomes is the poster child for the multi-sports athlete,” Cook recently told Yahoo Sports. Quarterbacks of this era are technically more superior because they spend so much more time practicing and running drills. However, they are far more inferior when the play breaks down and the game goes off script. There is no quarterback who thrives in those off scripted and pressure situations better than Mahomes.
Mahomes was a standout quarterback at Whitehouse High School but his skills didn’t stop there. He also played on the baseball team where he earned a NCAA Division 1 scholarship to Texas Tech and was talented enough to be selected by the Detroit Tigers in the 2014 MLB draft. "I think a lot of (my improvisation) is from baseball and how I could sling the ball across the diamond. I played shortstop my whole life. I never had my feet under me. I was always making throws across my body," Mahomes told Texas Football magazine in 2016. While minor differences certainly exist, the throwing motion used in baseball (and by pitchers, especially) uses many of the same muscle groups as the throwing motion used by quarterbacks. A number of well-known quarterbacks who played baseball were indeed pitchers, including Winston, Kaepernick, Marino and Aikman. The timing, mechanics, strength and stability they learned as pitchers likely helped them become better football throwers
Scoolu coach and quarterback guru Jim Barker says that “typical quarterbacks learn basic throwing mechanics. Having that baseball background helps Mahomes when he gets on the move and has the ability to accurately throw the ball from a wide variety or lower arm angles.” These skills were acquired because Mahomes played much of his baseball career at the shortstop position where he would have to throw the ball from awkward or unusual body positions. Barker goes on to say that “Mahomes has a wealth of intangibles with a diversified repertoire of skills that make him a more dangerous and talented quarterback than most.”
Mahomes was also a key part of his varsity basketball team where in his senior year he averaged 19 points and 8 rebounds. “It definitely helps whenever you have played basketball in your career. When you do those no-look passes in basketball, it translates a little bit to whenever you are kind of off scrambling and you just kind of look (the defender) off a little bit and throw it to (the receiver)." Mahomes told Sports Illustrated in 2018.
So many players only play football year-round as opposed to baseball, basketball or any other sport during the off season. "Because he played multiple sports, the overlay of all of those experiences and skills are there in the NFL…It's all just one game for Patrick. It's always been just one big game, just on different playing surfaces. In high school football, you are guaranteed just 10 games. Instead (of only playing football), Patrick was always playing something and learning how to win along the way" said Cook.
Mahomes is a phenomenal athlete and a lot of that can be attributed to playing other sports in high school and not specializing in one sport at a young age. He was able to diversify his game in many ways that single sport players could not. Playing multiple sports allowed Mahomes to add versatility to his game, build a better sports IQ and stimulate his competitive attitude. All eyes will be on Mahomes this coming weekend as the Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers in SuperBowl LIV in Miami, Florida.