Patrick Mahomes II is the NFL’s MVP and also the Super Bowl’s MVP. If we could just find one more Most Valuable, he’d have a hat trick. He is the best quarterback of this generation and all this before the age of 25.

With all of this, obviously he was noticed as a future Hall of Fame quarterback probably in elementary school, huh?

If not, then by high school everyone could tell he was going to be a number one overall selection in the NFL draft. Or, maybe not.

When the 2017 NFL draft rolled around, nine players were selected and Patrick was still available. Myles Garrett of A&M went number one. The second pick was a quarterback not named Mahomes. (You have to wonder if the Bears fired any scouts a couple of years later.) At number three, San Francisco selected a defensive end out of Stanford, a nice player, but not a franchise piece. Slots four through nine brought the selection of an assortment of receivers, running backs and linemen.

Kansas City was waiting at number 27. Ignorance may have left the son of a former Ranger still there at number ten, but even a blind hog finds an acorn every once in a while. Andy Reid knew the former Red Raider wouldn’t last that far. So, the Chiefs gave Buffalo the number 27 choice, their 2017 third round pick and their 2018 first rounder to move up to take Patrick.

Some thought they might be moving up to take Deshaun Watson. Nope. The Chiefs had their sights set on the young gunslinger from Whitehouse.

Corsicana Tiger fans knew what Andy saw. They had seen Patrick in action over a couple of seasons.

That made the average Tiger fan considerably smarter than the average college scout. The other Texas universities ignored the East Texas phenom. He wasn’t even on the radar for UT and A&M. Young Mahomes did his best to get TCU and Baylor to look him over, and they looked elsewhere. The only schools to offer him a football scholarship were Texas Tech, Houston and Rice.

How can that be, you ask. Well Patrick didn’t specialize in football.

He didn’t to all the quarterback camps where the high profile passers flaunt their wares.

 You see, he also played basketball and baseball. In fact, basketball was considered to be his best sport. Some considered him to be the best basketball player in East Texas.

And, then there was baseball. Patrick was a pitcher. Patrick threw a fastball that clocked over 90 mph. His senior year, he threw a no hitter with 16 strikeouts.

Oklahoma State offered him a baseball scholarship, and many people assumed that’s the sport he’d play in college.

Why would they assume that? Maybe because both his dad and his granddad had been major league pitchers.  Lindale native, Pat Mahomes Senior even pitched one year of his 11 for the Rangers.

Kliff Kingsbury didn’t see him as a pitcher. The former Red Raider coach had been the offensive coordinator at A&M when Johnny Manziel became Johnny Football.

He realized that a quarterback in the Run and Shoot, Air Raid or whatever you want to call the system, didn’t have to be someone standing in the pocket.

Patrick Mahomes was a bigger, stronger, smarter, more disciplined Johnny Football. Future Heisman winner Baker Mayfield decides to leave? No big deal. Patrick Mahomes was waiting in the wings.

Now, I hesitated to compare Patrick Mahomes to Johnny Manziel.

On the field, Patrick is everything Johnny was and more. He’s a gun slinger in the Brett Favre mold, a la Johnny Football. Both have a ton of confidence.  

Neither thinks the game is ever out of reach. But, remember, this is on the field.

Off the field, it’s Jekyll and Hyde, night and day, Trump and Bernie.

Where Johnny might party until he can’t try out, fly to Vegas or invest heavily in my ancestor the Captain, Patrick helps build homes for veterans, launches a charitable foundation to help KC children with health problems, visits patients at the University of Kansas Health System and such.

Now, Johnny Manziel may be a devout Christian. I can only go by outward appearance, and, for me at least, that’s hard to spot. It’s not hard to see with Patrick. He regularly goes to devotionals and prays in the end zone before games.

Athletes aren’t always role models any more. So, it is refreshing to see that the best quarterback in football is.

Right now, he’s the best quarterback of his generation. If he can stay healthy, he has a chance to be the GOAT.

 So, not only are Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco and six other NFL teams kicking themselves, so are UT, A&M, Baylor, TCU and a plethora (ask Neal Green) of other teams. Scouting isn’t perfect, but I think even that blind hog could have spotted that acorn.

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