“Sheesh! Calm down, Pat, it’s just a preseason game!” That was all of us when Patrick Mahomes pulled off that magical behind-the-back pass to his brother-in-arms, Travis Kelce. And guess what? He did it out of frustration as he admitted, “I was mad [at Trav]. Out of spite, I threw a behind-the-back pass.” Talk about pulling a rabbit out of the hat without even trying. But hey, the good thing is, he left his frustration all out on the gridiron.

Standing on the podium, following the Chiefs’ 23-24 loss to the Lions, Mahomes didn’t shy away from detailing how the play unfolded. He was eyeing an RPO play, expecting Trav to run a flag route. The plan was perfect, except for one tiny hiccup. Kelce wasn’t where Mahomes expected him to be. “I should have known,” Mahomes said with a smirk, referencing Kelce’s momentary confusion as he motioned over, “he asked me what he had.” With all the cheers in the Arrowhead, it’s easy to see how the signal got lost. And that’s what the number 15 echoed in front of the press as well. He knew his frustration was momentary and in the heat of the moment. Do you blame him, though? He has ‘Perfection’ encoded in his system. And that play was just perfect, well, sort of.

Mahomes improvised on the fly and made something out of nothing. “I was going to run for it, and of course, he was blocking. Then he just turned around, and I just threw it to him. So it wasn’t how it was drawn up… But it looked cool.” While everyone else saw the magician at play, Mahomes was just hoping the ball found Kelce. He said that he hit it flat and low, so he did not know if the Pigskin would reach the Chiefs’ number 87 or not. It did. But make no mistake, this wasn’t a flashy stunt for the highlight reel. It was a ‘what the heck just happened’ moment, born out of frustration and instinct.

However, Travis Kelce had his own take, and he wasn’t having any of it from his signal-caller. All in a lighter tone, of course! Joining the fourth-quarter broadcast, Kelce playfully tossed Mahomes under the bus, as brothers do. “He kind of mumbled out the play, and I couldn’t hear. Before I knew it, he snapped the ball,” Kelce quipped, throwing in a dash of humor for good measure. He admitted that by the time he realized what was happening, Mahomes was already in mid-throw, looking like he was posing for the cover of a sports magazine. But the TE signed off by advising all: “Don’t let Pat trick you guys into me doing the wrong thing.” Talk about a connection that runs beyond the gridiron.

Intended or not, the play has surely got the social media united. Not just fans, but the legends are singing Patrick Mahomes’ praises too.

Jason Kelce hails Patrick Mahomes as “Magician”!

Even with three Super Bowl rings on his fingers, Patrick Mahomes is still bending reality like it’s second nature. In two quick drives against the Lions, going 8-for-14 for 93 yards, Mahomes pulled off a behind-the-back pass that left fans speechless. It wasn’t in the game plan, but that’s Mahomes—always finding ways to shake things up. And it wasn’t just fans who couldn’t get over it; social media lit up with praise, and legends across the league gave flowers to the QB for his tricks under the center. Mahomes is gunning for Tom Brady’s throne, and the way he’s moving, you can almost smell what’s cooking.

“This son of a gun actually did it!! Magic Mahomes,” Eagles legend Jason Kelce tweeted moments after the play. That’s the kind of connection Mahomes sparks—reaching across teams and drawing admiration from his peers. Meanwhile, while Jason was praising the pass, his brother Travis was busy making it happen on the field. Don’t be surprised if you hear Travis taking some credit when Mahomes pulls this off again in the regular season. Because you can sense that it is about to happen.

And it is not just us throwing words around a spanner, rather head coach Andy Reid has been waiting for his QB to pull off this move as well. Especially since Mahomes hit a similar pass to running back Isiah Pacheco during training camp. Although Mahomes insisted that he “didn’t plan for it” to happen in the preseason, if it “happens naturally,” we could well and truly see it again when the games really count.

As the 2024 season is on the horizon, Patrick Mahomes is proving that the playbook won’t always define him. What else is up his sleeve? If he’s pulling off behind-the-back passes on a whim, the league better buckle up—because the show’s far from over. And with the 3-peat in sight, we might see a new beast unleashed.