During ESPN2's alternate broadcast of "Monday Night Football" between the Broncos and Bills, the thoroughly entertaining "ManningCast" featured the great Patrick Mahomes as a special guest — and, wow, did the Chiefs' All-Pro quarterback leave a lasting mark.
The exceedingly gross, standout moment occurred when Eli Manning brought up the topic of Mahomes having a few notable superstitions. Of most significance, of course, was learning from former Chiefs backup quarterback Chad Henne that the two-time Super Bowl champion has been "wearing the same pair of red underwear on game day for years now."
Chiefs? QB Patrick Mahomes confirmed last night to @EliManning and Peyton Manning that he has worn the same pair of underwear for every game of his NFL career: pic.twitter.com/GezPd08Km0
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 14, 2023
After Manning made the reasonable suggestion of having the same pregame meal before every game as opposed to wearing the same underwear every time he suits up, a candid Mahomes responded by saying the following:
"Well, ya know, well first, my wife Brittany got them for me. So I had to, I'm not throwing y'all down, but I have to wear 'em ya know. But at the same time I threw 'em on that first season. We had a pretty good season that season. I only wear them for game day though, so they're not too worn down. They're not like these nasty, I clean 'em."
Unfortunately, it manages to get a little grosser — and also funnier — as Mahomes continued:
"I do, I wash 'em, I wash 'em. Every once in awhile at least ... I mean if we're on a hot streak I can't wash 'em. Ya know, I gotta just keep it rolling. So ya know, as long as I'm winning football games, I'll keep the superstition going."
For starters, Mahomes glossing over and completely ignoring Manning asking, "Is it a thong, is it a g-string? What is it?" made for a pretty unsettling moment. But sometimes, certain questions are best left unanswered, even though that glaring non-answer may have been an answer in itself.
Secondly, let's keep in mind here that Mahomes is in the middle of his sixth season as the Chiefs' starting quarterback. That's a total of 88 regular season starts (102 including the playoffs), which is a whole lot of Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays wearing the same pair of red underwear. And, apparently, the very same underwear that has often not been washed?
Yikes, Patrick. Upon hearing this, it would be hilarious to soon learn that Brittany Mahomes — an involuntary participant thrown into the meat of the conversation and basically blamed for this "habit" — makes an executive decision and buys her exceptionally talented husband a crate of brand new red undies.
The Mahomes reveal on Monday night also offered up a whole new meaning behind this State Farm commercial, which was really just scratching the surface of a much more disturbing superstition.
Now, just imagine if Mahomes ends up playing as long as Tom Brady did. That's another 17 years of wearing the same underwear every single time No. 15 suits up for an NFL football game.
With that thought in mind, remember that Mahomes did state to Manning that he washes his now-very-famous red underwear "every once in awhile." By Season 10 and beyond, Mahomes' own teammates might begin filing official requests to the league office for a mandatory change, or perhaps a different room to change altogether. You now have full permission to plug your nose and add "laundry" in all-caps to your respective to-do lists.
