Patrick Mahomes says he’s taken COVID booster shot

The Kansas City quarterback says he’s doing the best he can to be available for his teammates.

NFL teams have rarely commented about whether specific players have been vaccinated against COVID-19. But that hasn’t stopped individual players — whether they have been vaccinated or not — from making public statements about their status.

Speaking with The Drive’s Carrington Harrison during a 610Sports interview on Monday, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said he has recently taken the latest COVID booster.

“I have the young one at the house, so I don’t want to present anything for her — and also, I want to be available for my team,” he explained. “So I’ve gotten the booster. I know it’s still a rather new thing, but I try to just give myself the best opportunity to be available for my team and to keep everyone safe around me.”

From Mahomes’ perspective, it’s one of the things about playing in the NFL that’s pretty much out of his control— so he might as well do the best he can with it.

“All you can do is try to distance yourself as much as possible,” he said. ”And then try to not put yourself in positions to get positive tests and stuff like that. I mean, it’s such a weird deal — especially if you look at the NFL, the NBA and everything going on around the world right now. COVID’s kind of spiked itself again.”

But one of the things he and his teammates can control is how they play during the final weeks of the 2021 season, when continuing victories — along with key losses by other teams — have now made it possible for Kansas City to earn the AFC’s first postseason seed simply by winning their final three games. Mahomes said that it was one of the factors he oberserved during Thursday’s 36-28 overtime win over the Los Angeles Chargers.

“I think it’s just when you have your back up against a wall, you have to make something happen,” said the quarterback. “The guys really responded — and made stuff happen. The catches that [Travis Kelce] was making — where he was making all those runs after the catch — [and Tyreek Hill] made those big-time catches at the end of the game. And really, everybody — I mean, everybody — stepped up: the offensive line blocked its tail off. I think when it got tough, everybody just responded to the adversity, went out there and found a way to win.”

In Thursday’s game, Kelce set single-game personal records for receiving yards and receiving yards per catch in games with more than five receptions. Mahomes said that his 32-year-old tight end is still capable of fooling opposing defenses — just like he did in Thursday’s walk-off touchdown.

“He’s faster than you think he is,” observed Mahomes. “He doesn’t look fast — but he’s moving. I think he found a way to get in between the linebackers there — [and] there were a couple of bad angles that defensive backs took on him because they didn’t expect him to hit it like he did. And he found a way to get in the end zone.

“It was a special play, for sure.”