In 1993, long after he had finished training the iconic Showtime Lakers, the great Pat Riley devised one of the best sports theories of all time: “My Sickness,” sometimes known as “Most Sickness.”
The Hall of Fame basketball coach theorized that when sports teams win big, players on that team will focus primarily on taking care of themselves. Inherently, that’s not a bad instinct, but in a sports team that requires sacrificing oneself for the greater good of the team, it can lead to a widespread search for statistics and a search for attention, the double death to the teams’ championship hopes.
In the NBA, the disappearance of the Shaq and Kobe Lakers is a great example of this. The genius of theory is swollen by the fact that it spans multiple sports. Think of the 2018 Jacksonville Jaguars, which went from the AFC championship game to one of the most depressing situations in the league in two years.
You can bet that many in the NFL this offseason expected to see shadows of the same from the current Kansas City Chiefs, Super Bowl champions. Led by the game’s best player in Patrick Mahomes, 24, the potential for a Boss dynasty was palpable as Mahomes coldly led them from a 20-10 deficit in the fourth quarter in a thrilling victory in the Super Bowl.
Due to Mahomes’ youth and surrounding infrastructure, the Chiefs are about to be Super Bowl threats for the next decade. The only hope for the rest of the league, beyond injury, of course, was mismanagement of the office. And there was no shortage of opportunities for that this offseason.
At one point this offseason, Kansas City had $ 177 in salary space. Despite this, they managed to retain 20 of 22 Super Bowl team starters from last season. They also signed Mahomes to a landmark contract worth more than half a trillion dollars, all while having enough capitalization space to re-sign star defensive tackle Chris Jones to a lavish contract.
One big reason why the Chiefs accomplished this was Mahomes and Jones’ willingness to lean a little on the structure of their deals. Mahomes, in particular, had all the power to push for whatever he wanted, be it a fully guaranteed contract or a percentage of the deal tied to the limit.
Sure, he signed a baseball-style deal that will essentially guarantee him a small country’s total GDP for the next decade, but the deal also added very little new money to the Chiefs’ cap over the next two seasons and, what’s more importantly, it allows the Chiefs to plan future salary caps with fixed numbers for him, a great victory.
And because Mahomes recognized those two points, he gave the Chiefs a chance to bring back Jones, a franchise-tagged passer who was so tired of going nowhere in contract talks that he threatened to stay out of it. the season. All that changed, he says, when the lucrative but friendly outreach to the Mahomes team was done.
“When Pat’s deal was done, Pat texted me and said, ‘Let’s do this, I left some on the table, let’s do this,'” Jones told reporters during a conference call Monday. “And that’s when I was sure that the Chiefs and I were going to solve something.”
When Jones said that, you could practically feel the recoil of the agents throughout the league.
The answer is simple: because Mahomes really cares about his football heritage. He wants to be the best of all time, just like Tom Brady or Joe Montana, and maybe even be the best.
And like Brady, who certainly “left some money on the table” during his New England career, Mahomes prioritized that over more cold cash.
Sure, Mahomes is paid a ton, but as the greatest asset in professional football, he could have pushed him to the absolute limit. If he had, the negotiations, which were kept very quiet, could have become controversial. Maybe the hard feelings start to develop. And by ordering even more, it would have been even more difficult for the Chiefs to put a team around them like the one that just won a Super Bowl.
However, that was not possible for Mahomes, who is betting that he has everything in place to run in multiple rings. Hall of Fame Coach? Check. Well-run organization? Check. Butt flexibility in the future to do it? You gamble. Brady and the Patriots had many of the same things for them, and although Brady is now a Tampa Bay Buccaneer, he first won six rings in New England.
Mahomes isn’t the only one who considers sacrifice worth pursuing multiple titles, either. During a radio interview Monday afternoon on KCSP 610 Sports Radio, Jones said he plans to win “more than five rings” in Kansas City.
It’s a bold belief, the kind that you’d better have if you’re a gamer in an extremely violent game who chooses to take less after not really pushing the envelope in negotiations.
“For me, it was the understanding that Pat and I have,” said Jones, who made a deal with zero signing bonuses to stay with the Chiefs. “We want to create a dynasty in Kansas City. We both have the same goal, to create a dynasty and to build something special.
“In Kansas City, playing for the coach [Andy] Reid and all the talent we have, we all have the same mindset. We want to keep this team together, so let’s do what we have to do to make sure we stay together, so we have to get together and do that. ”
And yes, other organizations will try to convince their players to do the same. But many of those pleas will scoff because NFL players will almost always do what they can to win as much money as possible during races that don’t last long. Exceptions come with perpetually winning organizations, of which there are about five, and even so, my illness is real, folks. You can even argue that after 20 years in New England, he even made it to the Patriots this offseason when Brady felt compelled to go somewhere he felt most desired. And yes, chances are one day it will ruin any dynasty the Chiefs are trying to build.
Meanwhile, as the Patriots demonstrated, it can be avoided for years, even decades, as long as a team has the rarest combinations: a selfless, generational quarterback paired with a well-run organization and a Hall of Fame coach.
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