Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs opened their season with a statement, beating the Denver Broncos 31-10 on Monday Night Football. Mahomes made his long-awaited return from a serious knee injury count, finishing 15-of-27 for 184 yards and two touchdowns for an 86.0 passer rating.
Kenneth Walker III made sure his Chiefs debut was memorable too, rushing for 173 yards and two touchdowns. Travis Kelce chipped in a 59-yard catch that helped set up a field goal, giving his new wife, Taylor Swift, one more reason to celebrate on a night that had plenty to like for Kansas City.
Kelce proposed to Swift last August, and the two were married two months ago at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images via Reuters Connect
The wedding doubled as a gathering of sports and entertainment royalty, with Mahomes, Matthew Stafford, Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Reese Witherspoon, Adam Sandler, Emma Stone and Paul Rudd among those in attendance, and Kelce’s brother Jason serving as best man.
Details from the night were kept mostly quiet at the time, but stories have continued to surface in the weeks since. The latest comes from Pat McAfee, who recalled what he saw from the Chiefs quarterback on the dance floor.
“What I saw there – Patrick Mahomes was dancing in the middle of the dance floor,” McAfee said on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown. “I think I noticed that night that Patrick might come back early. I was like, ‘Hey, he’s dancing his [expletive] off,’ What was it like – 4-5 hours? And the entire Chiefs team was together. That felt like a real unified bunch.”
It’s a fascinating detail, but one that says plenty about where Mahomes stood in his recovery at that point. Nine months earlier, the quarterback suffered a pair of torn knee ligaments in a painful moment against the Los Angeles Chargers, spun to the ground near Kansas City’s bench late in a loss that all but ended the Chiefs’ playoff hopes last season.
That version of Mahomes feels far away now. With the win over Denver behind them, Mahomes, Kelce and the Chiefs turn their attention to the Indianapolis Colts in Week 2.
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