The star quarterback also recalled a hilarious story involving his backup on one of their trips
PATRICK Mahomes has given an insight into how the Kansas City Chiefs players bond during training camp.
The Chiefs recently concluded their annual camp at Missouri Western State University’s training facility in St. Joseph.
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An opportunity for the players and staff to get away from their usual setup, the trip is an important bonding experience for all those involved.
During Thursday’s press conference, quarterback Mahomes revealed that he and teammates, such as Travis Kelce and Chris Jones, go for group trips to a local restaurant – IL Lazzarone Neapolitan Pizzeria.
He said they’ll usually go “a couple of times, we take the guys, we get some pizzas, I usually do it after the second padded day before the ten-ten-tens, so we were there yesterday.”
Mahomes then jokingly asked the reporters to not “remember that for next year and try to storm up my party.”
He added that there they enjoy food together and “joke around,” before recalling his backup Ian Book eating “like nine pieces of pizza yesterday.”
“I had to calm him down because the first time we went, he only got one piece because the o-line ate all his pizza so he went in this last day.
“Stuff like that is where you build that bond and then you have those jokes and stuff for the rest of the year.”
Discussing their time in St. Joseph, head coach Andy Reid was equally upbeat on their visit, highlighting its importance.
He told former Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith in an interview for SiriusXM NFL Radio that he felt these trips are “probably more important now than it was before.”
“The kids, they’ll get on their cell phones and not communicate, they’ll communicate through the cell phone.
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“So here, they’re eating dinner with each other, they’re sleeping in the same dorm rooms and sharing bathrooms and you’ve got to talk and you’ve got to communicate.
“You develop relationships and for a team the stronger that bond is, the more you respect the guy next to you, you go that little extra mile.”
Reid added that while he enjoys these trips, one downside is the beds.
But regardless, the St. Joseph trips remain something to look forward to.
Now with this chapter of their preseason done and dusted, their focus can turn to bouncing back from their 26-13 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on August 10.
They will host the Detroit Lions on Saturday, before the Chicago Bears come to town on August 22.
Kansas City will then host the season opener against the Baltimore Ravens – a rematch of the most recent AFC Championship game – on September 5.
This season, the Chiefs have the opportunity to become the first team in history to win three consecutive Super Bowls.
In doing so, it would also mark the fourth of Mahomes, Reid, Kelce, and Jones’ careers.
