Patrick Mahomes is comfortable with his cushion.
A shirtless photo of the star quarterback sporting a “dad bod” went viral in late January after his Chiefs defeated the Ravens in the AFC championship game, and Mahomes had some fun with his body type in an interview with TIME.
“I definitely have the dad bod a little bit,” Mahomes said. “I’ll also say I have a great body for a quarterback. You’ve got to have some padding in there to take the hits that we take.”
The story noted that Mahomes is a big fan of Chick-fil-A, Whataburger (for which he is a part owner in eight franchises that opened in Kansas City) and Starburst candy.
Mahomes first reacted to the “dad bod” phenomenon in January, after “Inside the NFL” aired his shirtless victory speech from the AFC title game.
“Yoooo why they have to do me like that!?!?!?” Mahomes wrote on X at the time, including the hashtag “DadBodSZN.”
He added in a second tweet, “Like i got kids!!!! @Chiefs @insidetheNFL @NFL.”
Mahomes and his wife, Brittany, have a son and daughter, Bronze and Sterling.
Elsewhere in the TIME profile, Mahomes said that it was too early put him in the conversation for the greatest quarterback of all-time.
“You have to build a consistency of a career,” Mahomes said.
“You see that in any sport. I’ve had a great run. I think I’ve done a great job so far. But it’s hard to take away from what Tom did for so long, what Peyton Manning did, or Aaron Rodgers. There are so many guys, they were at such a high level for such a long time. In order to be in that conversation, you have to do that on a year-to-year basis. You can’t take it for granted that you did it the year before.”
Mahomes has three Super Bowl championships, but wants to wait for his whole body of work to be evaluated amongst the greats.
“That’s something I’ll talk about when I’m done playing people can make those decisions,” he said.