At Final Four, Texas Tech fans’ heads are on a swivel: Is Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes here?
The Texas Tech men’s basketball team took the floor for open practice on Friday, the day before the Red Raiders’ national semifinal game against Michigan State at the Final Four. This stirred delight in the Tech fans among the thousands at U.S. Bank Stadium.
But those red-clad fans were looking for a bonus appearance, too.
Word was former Tech quarterback and current Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes might show up, and that was big news for the Red Raiders’ faithful.
“We heard he might be here — have you heard anything?” asked Lyn Moreno of Lubbock, Texas, who was watching the practice session with her husband Steve and wearing a Mahomes T-shirt.
Word from the Chiefs was no, Mahomes would not be at the practice. But the quarterback who led the Kansas City to the AFC Championship Game and was named NFL MVP in his first year as a starter will be a likely spectator here on Saturday.
A Chiefs player at a Final Four is hardly news. But after this past season, Mahomes’ celebrity status is cemented and fans want a peek, but especially a selfie. Moreno got one with him before a Tech game a few years ago.
Mahomes’ week started with a guest spot on the The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in New York, where he launched his new charity, “15 and the Mahomies,” to assist underprivileged kids. He will end the week watching his basketball team play in its first Final Four.
“That’s who he is,” Moreno said. “And he’s only 23.”
With his 5,097-yard, 50-touchdown season for the Chiefs, Mahomes delivered an effort familiar to Tech fans. In his final season in Lubbock, Mahomes threw for 5,052 yards and 41 touchdowns, but the Red Raiders didn’t qualify for a bowl game.
“We knew what we had in Pat,” Steve Moreno said. “Maybe the rest of the country didn’t know, but we knew.”
So did the Chiefs, who moved up from their No. 27 draft spot to No. 10 to make Mahomes the first quarterback selected by the franchise in the first round since 1983. Mahomes played in one game as a rookie, helping the Chiefs win at Denver in their regular-season finale and making his record as an NFL starter, including playoffs, 14-5.
The Morenos said they watched every Chiefs game this season. Former Texas Tech athletic director and coach Gerald Myers said, perhaps half-jokingly, that the longtime Dallas Cowboys-town now tilts Chiefs red.
Myers, who spent 21 years as Tech’s coach, was the school’s athletic boss when the Big 12 was created, and he hired Bob Knight. He started his conversation about Tech basketball with this:
“Let’s talk about our guy Patrick Mahomes,” Myers said. “We’re all Chiefs fans now.”
Most of the attention here is on Chris Beard’s basketball team that shared the Big 12 championship and has powered through the first two weekends of the NCAA Tournament to reach Final Four. But Beard and his players didn’t mind sharing their thoughts about a football star whose last season with the Red Raiders was 2016.
“He’s a humble guy who has stayed true to who he is,” said senior forward Norense Odiase. “He loves his Red Raiders.”
So much so that Mahomes was sitting courtside at Sprint Center in November to watch Tech defeat Nebraska in the championship game of the Hall of Fame Classic. That game was played the night after Mahomes tossed six touchdown passes in the Chiefs’ Monday Night Football loss at the Los Angeles Rams.
“He’s been unbelievable for our university, our team, our town,” Beard said. “He’s just a real ambassador. He’s one of those guys who hasn’t forgotten where he’s come from.”
Beard had one request. He wants Mahomes to appear with him on a Texas Tech Fireside Chat, where Beard and a player sit in comfortable chairs with a fireplace background, talk Red Raiders basketball and promote upcoming games.
“That’s the only problem I have with Pat,” Beard said. “We haven’t gotten that done yet.”
This story was originally published April 5, 2019 at 5:46 PM with the headline "At Final Four, Texas Tech fans’ heads are on a swivel: Is Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes here?."