Tom Brady Offers Advice to Patrick Mahomes After ACL Tear

Like Mahomes, Brady suffered an ACL tear in the 2008 NFL season, only to go on and win four more Super Bowls and two NFL MVPs.

(L-R) Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes take part in the quarterback roundtable prior to Capital One's The Match VI - Brady & Rodgers v. Allen & Mahomes at Wynn Golf Club in Las Vegas, Nev., on June 1, 2022. Carmen Mandato/Getty Images for The Match

Patrick Mahomes isn’t the first NFL star, or star athlete in general, to suffer a torn ACL. All-time greats like Rob Gronkowski and Adrian Peterson overcame the injury to resume their elite level of play, while active stars like Joe Burrow and Saquon Barkley have done the same. However, few people on earth are on the caliber of Mahomes when it comes to ability, production, and sheer celebrity status, but there is someone in the same vein who has gone through the same injury. It just happens to be the person that Mahomes is, presumably, chasing in terms of GOAT status, and it’s Tom Brady.

The seven-time Super Bowl champion tore his ACL in Week 1 of the 2008 NFL season, only to then return exactly one year later in Week 1 of the 2009 season. Brady even overcame an infection during the rehab process, which certainly didn’t speed up the recovery. He was asked to reminisce back 17 years ago to when he was in a similar position to what Mahomes faces now in his “Let’s Go” podcast.

“It’s a tough rehab,” Brady said. “It’s one of the toughest rehabs. I just remember every day pushing myself. And it’s always the same amount of pain and discomfort, except you’re making progress through that pain and discomfort, which is a hard psychological thing to battle. You feel like, ‘God, every day, it doesn’t feel right.’ Except you’re gaining range of motion and you’re gaining strength and you are on the road to recovery. So I wish him the very best.”

For someone who didn’t have the physical gifts of other quarterbacks, what Brady did have was the mental makeup which allowed him to become who many consider the greatest quarterback in NFL history. His mentality, however, wasn’t restricted to just what he did on the football field or in the film room, as he also applied it to his rehabilitation.

“You’ve just got to put as much diligence into the rehab process. And I always feel like the faster you rehab, the faster you can get back to practicing the sport that you love,” Brady stated.

“I think sometimes people will pace themselves. Instead of training mode, they’re in rehab mode. I think you gotta get through rehab mode as fast as possible and then you get back to training mode. But that requires an all-out commitment and it’s the same commitment that the great professional athletes make to be great at their profession. When you go through the rehab process, you need that same level of focus and determination.”

Brady’s injury occurred in Week 15 of the 2025 NFL season, his ninth NFL season, and after he had already won three Super Bowl championships. Likewise, Mahomes’ injury on Sunday happened during his ninth NFL season and after he’s already a three-time Super Bowl champion. The Kansas City Chiefs are also a link between the two situations, as Mahomes is the current star for the franchise, while Brady was injured while playing the Chiefs back in 2008.

Mahomes, and the Chiefs, have wasted little time in starting the rehab process as he had surgery on Monday night, roughly 24 hours after suffering the injury. While Brady’s Week 1 injury gave him three extra months to recover for the following season, Mahomes doesn’t have that luxury in mid-December.

Rick Burkholder, who is the Chiefs’ VP of sports medicine and performance, gave an update on Mahomes after the operation, which included a timeline of when Mahomes can expect a full recovery.

“Every player is different. Every sport is different. Every position is different,” Burkholder told the media on Wednesday. “[Mahomes] is so in tune to what he does, he does it a little quicker. Ballpark on this is nine months, but it could be a month or two less, a month or two more. Everyone is designed differently and biomechanically.”

This will be just the second time that Mahomes has missed NFL games due to an injury, with the first also due to a knee ailment. In 2019, Mahomes suffered a dislocated patella while attempting a quarterback sneak on 4^th and 1. He would miss two games but showed no ill effects upon returning. Given how important Mahomes is to the franchise, the Chiefs have not called a quarterback sneak play with Mahomes since he incurred that injury in the ensuing six years.

To add insult to the injury that Mahomes suffered on Sunday, Kansas City lost that game to the Chargers, and with that, the Chiefs have been eliminated from postseason contention. It marks the first time since 2014 that the NFL playoffs will go on without the team, and their 10-year streak of making the postseason trails only one other team in NFL history. Coincidentally, it was Brady’s team in the New England Patriots (11 years). That Patriots streak began in 2009, which was the year after Brady tore his ACL.

Brady was a year older at the time of his injury than what Mahomes is now, and the former would go on to win four more Super Bowls, three Super Bowl MVP awards, two NFL MVP awards, and one Comeback Player of the Year all after tearing his ACL. So while there’s not much to look forward to in Chiefs Kingdom for the remainder of this year, the prospects are still very bright for Mahomes and the franchise starting in 2026.