“He elevates the people around him … he’s a competitor, a leader. I just tell everybody he has that ‘it factor,’ and that’s something you can’t coach.” Those were the words of Brent Kelley, the high school coach of Patrick Mahomes , during his Super Bowl run. They were his initial observations on a teenager who swaggered and worked his tail off to the point where he couldn’t be ignored. Years before when Mahomes became the Kansas City Chiefs ‘ face, he was already calling huddles, setting tone, and turning practice fields into proving grounds.

And then Patrick Mahomes wasn’t throwing 60-yard bombs in primetime at Arrowhead. He was tinkering with mechanics on dusty Texas practice fields, fighting with the same intensity that would later illuminate NFL Sundays. He was the kid who s

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