PATRICK MAHOMES HASN’T EVEN CELEBRATED HIS 30TH BIRTHDAY, BUT WITH THREE SUPER BOWL RINGS AND ANOTHER THREE PETE ROZELLE TROPHIES, ANALYSTS AND FANS ALIKE ARE ALREADY TOSSING AROUND THE HOLY GOAT LABEL, BUT AS THE TEXAS NATIVE ATTESTS, ONLY TIME WILL TELL IF HE IS INDEED THE GREATEST OF ALL

BY WILL HARRIS

Patrick Mahomes may not be the sort of guy who believes in the philosophy of “an eye for an eye,” but he subscribes to “a ring for a ring,” apparently: on September 1, 2020, the day the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback received his championship ring for Super Bowl LIV, he proposed to his high school sweetheart, Brittany Matthews, an engagement that has since led not only to marriage but also to a daughter, a son, and as of this writing a third child on the cusp of arrival.

C’mon, who doesn’t love a little romance mixed in with their sports-success story? And make no mistake, Mahomes’ story is one of tremendous success…

“I always wanted to be a baseball player when I was kid,” Mahomes admitted to Arrowhead Addict in 2018. “But as I grew up and started really falling in love with football, I focused solely on that. It was after my junior season, I think, when I pretty much made football first.”

Mahomes also played basketball in high school, and he’s since acknowledged a belief that playing hoops and practicing pitching improved his skills as a quarterback. Certainly the pitching paid off: he was actually selected by the Detroit Tigers in the 37th round of the 2014 MLB draft, although as history reveals, he never signed a contract. Instead, he committed to Texas Tech, where he played through the 2016 season. After, he entered the NFL draft, where he was selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the first round.

If there was ever any question as to whether Kansas City had made a good decision, it was pretty much settled in Mahomes’ first game, where he threw for 256 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions and a 127.5 passer rating, stats which earned him the title of AFC Offensive Player of the Week.

Of course, it’s only gotten better since. As of this writing, he’s now won three Super Bowl MVP awards, an accomplishment which puts him alongside only Tom Brady and Joe Montana, who’ve won five and three, respectively.

But Mahomes isn’t getting cocky. “You have to build a consistency of a career,” he told TIME last year, after making his way into the magazine’s list of the World’s Most Influential People. “You see that in any sport. I’ve had a great run. I think I’ve done a great job so far. But it’s hard to take away from what Tom did for so long, what Peyton Manning did, or Aaron Rodgers. There are so many guys; they were at such a high level for such a long time. In order to be in that conversation, you have to do that on a year-to-year basis. You can’t take it for granted that you did it the year before.”

As such, Mahomes wouldn’t be drawn into TIME’s question about whether or not he’s a GOAT of the game, simply saying, “That’s something I’ll talk about when I’m done playing.”

Patrick Mahomes

@patrickmahomes