“Not What Football Players End Up Grasping”: Stephen Smith Ridicules Comparisons Between Michael Jordan and Patrick Mahomes

Analyst Stephen A. Smith believed NFL star Patrick Mahomes won’t be a global superstar like Michael Jordan.

Mahomes signed a 10-year extension with the Kansas City Chiefs recently. The deal, estimated to be worth around $503 million, is the richest-valued contract in American sports history. Mahomes came into the NFL via the 2017 Draft and soon became a star man in the sport. Earlier this year, he became the youngest player ever to win the Super Bowl MVP award at the age of 24 after leading the Chiefs to their first NFL championship in 50 years.

Patrick Mahomes will not have the global appeal that Michael Jordan has, feels Smith

The mammoth 10-year deal has led many into debating whether he has become the new face of American sports. Talking on ESPN’s GetUp, Stephen A. Smith said Mahomes won’t become another Michael Jordan. The main reason, Smith believed, was that football didn’t have the same global appeal as that of basketball.

“Let’s understand and put it in context. Football hasn’t done the job that the NBA has done in terms of making the sport a global iconic brand. It’s huge in America. But in Europe, football is soccer. So, that’s number one. Number two, when we think about Patrick Mahomes, he’ll never sell sneakers like Michael Jordan,” Smith said.

As a basketball player, Jordan’s popularity is perhaps unmatched. Until recently, he was the only billionaire sportsperson in the world. While Smith didn’t see Mahomes becoming a Jordan, he acknowledged that the quarterback will remain the biggest star at the NFL level, at least for a while.

“Michael Jordan and the Jordan brand is an eight billion-dollar business. LeBron James is close to a billion dollars. This is not what football players end up doing. So when we talk about the brand that is Patrick Mahomes, he is number one and he is going to be number one for a while on a national football league level. And in America, he’ll be a big time. But in terms of global iconic status, that’s not what football players end up grasping.