Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes made it through the Week 16 win over the Houston Texans without aggravating his ankle injury.

After suffering what was described as a “mild” high ankle sprain in Week 15’s win over the Cleveland Browns, Mahomes shocked the world with the quick turnaround and recovery. He spent countless hours getting treatment from Chiefs ATC Julie Frymyer on his ankle in the short week of preparation for the Texans, which allowed him to fully participate in practice and play during Saturday’s game.

Asked why it was so important for him to fight through the ankle injury and be on the field for this game, Mahomes dropped what might be the hardest quote of his career.

“Yeah, I ask a lot from the guys around me,” Mahomes began. “So, I feel like if I’m going to ask them to play through pain, if I’m going to ask them to play through little knicks and bruises and stuff like that, I have to do it as well. That’s something that I pride myself on is being out there with my guys and playing football. And I’m not going to put us in a position to be in a bad spot or lose a football game, but if I can feel like I can compete and win, I’m going to be out on that football field.”

Mahomes isn’t the type to ask his teammates to do something he wouldn’t do himself. This admirable mentality demonstrates Mahomes’ leadership style. It sets him apart from the rest because the decision legitimately invigorated his team, including the offense, defense, and special teams. They all wanted to uplift their teammate so that he didn’t have to carry the burden of winning the game while dealing with his ankle injury.

“Yeah. I mean, that was a big thing for us this week,” Chiefs CB Trent McDuffie said after the game. “You know, when Patrick [Mahomes] was dealing with his little stuff, so the defense felt like we had to be the ones to kind of control this game and be able to go out there and win this game for the team.”

Battling through injury is also consistent with the character that Mahomes has consistently shown. Even a rookie like Xavier Worthy knows that after just eight months in the building

“That was just Patrick [Mahomes] being Patrick,” Worthy said.

Mahomes said he didn’t set out to set the tone in the game, but he opened the scoring for Kansas City with a 15-yard rushing touchdown. It certainly set the tone, sending a signal that Mahomes wasn’t going to lay down for the Texans’ D-line.

“I knew I could run, it’s just the stopping that was going to be hard,” Mahomes explained to reporters. “Once I got running, I saw the end zone and just tried to get up in the air and get in the end zone. It wasn’t like setting the tone or anything like that. I just – just trying to play football at the end of the day.”

Playing football is exactly what he did. He went out there and played when many expected he wouldn’t be capable of doing so up to his normal standard of play. He battled through the adversity of a truncated schedule and a sprint to the finish line ahead of the playoffs.

From competitive prick to tough S.O.B., Mahomes has shown he’s willing to do whatever it takes to win. We saw it in the 2022 playoffs when he played through an ankle sprain that he’s described as “worse” than the one he’s dealing with now. His teammates were reminded of that in Week 16, and they adhere to the same mentality. One that will come up in the next several weeks as they make their push toward Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans: Do whatever it takes.

“Yeah, he [Patrick Mahomes] spoils the dog out of us there because he’s so tough – mentally and physically,” Chiefs HC Andy Reid said of Mahomes. “You just get used to it, but that’s – most guys don’t come back from that like he did, but he set his mind to it, and then he jumped in that training room and stayed in there. They worked on him, and they did a great job with that – our trainers. Most guys don’t do that. But you’re right, it sends a message to the whole team. Our guys are real good with that, our leaders are good in that way, they try to play through things like that.”