In response to comments made by former Texas Tech coach turned U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes told reporters he was not recruited to Texas Tech by Tuberville after he claimed to have done so earlier this week. Tuberville, Texas Tech's coach from 2010 to 2012 and now a U.S. senator from Alabama, took credit for having recruited Mahomes to play college football during an appearance on "The Megyn Kelly Show."
Tuberville had initially corrected Kelly for saying he had coached Mahomes, but went on to say that, "What happened is I recruited him and then I left and went to another school, but I got to be very good friends with him. He's not just a good athlete, he's a very good example for a lot of our young youth across this country."
As a coach, you start recruiting and working with players years before they get to college.
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) February 6, 2025
Patrick Mahomes was one of the best players I ever had the opportunity to recruit and get to know.
Looking forward to cheering him on this weekend when I join President Trump at the… pic.twitter.com/vbX9bLs1nj
Kelly apparently isn't the only one Tuberville has been talking up his relationship to Mahomes to, as President Donald Trump praised Tuberville on Wednesday for the job he did coaching the now-perennial Super Bowl quarterback and NFL MVP.
"You know, his quarterback was named Mahomes. He was a great college coach," Trump said of Tuberville. "And I said, 'How good was he?' He said, 'You don't wanna know how good. He made me into a great coach.' He's a pretty good quarterback, right? Yeah, he was very good. And he's a good guy, too."
However, what Tuberville has apparently been telling people in the political sphere about his role in Mahomes' development doesn't match up with Mahomes' recollection of events. Speaking to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Mahomes stated that not only did Tuberville not recruit him to Texas Tech, but he doesn't recall if he ever met him.
"He did not recruit me at the time," Mahomes said. "I don't remember if I ever got to meet him or not."
Per a fact check by the Cover 3 podcast, Mahomes was recruited by Texas Tech a month after Tuberville left for the University of Cincinnati, at which point the quarterback the program had been recruiting -- D.J. Gillen -- decommitted. Mahomes went on to play for Texas Tech from 2014 to 2016 before being drafted by the Chiefs in 2017.
At the very least, Mahomes has the opportunity to clear up the misunderstanding with another Super Bowl victory, which would earn him a trip to the White House.
