Don’t worry — Patrick Mahomes didn’t mean to say he hates Aaron Rodgers.
The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, 27, took to social media to comment on Rodgers’ unfortunate ankle injury that occurred within the first 5 minutes of the New York Jets vs. Buffalo Bills game on Monday, September 11. However, his lack of punctuation caused fans to misunderstand his message.
“Hate that man … Praying for the best,” Mahomes wrote via X (formerly known as Twitter), to which confused comments began pouring in. Realizing his grammatical flub, the athlete quickly edited the post to read, “Hate that, man … Praying for the best.” He added in a follow-up tweet: “Knew I was going to need that edit button on here one of these days,” with a crying laughing emoji.
Fans quickly took to the comments section to jokingly roast Mahomes for his error. “Commas matter bro,” one person wrote, while another replied, “Thanks @elonmusk lol Near disaster averted!!!!!.” A third added: “Good save! Rodgers won’t even know.”
Rodgers, 39, suffered an ankle injury after being sacked by Bills edge rusher Leonard Floyd during Monday’s game, which marked his debut with the New York team. Rodgers was attended to on the field at MetLife Stadium before being helped off by medical staff.
While X-rays later revealed no broken bones, Rodgers was replaced by backup QB Zach Wilson for the rest of the night and it remains unknown when he will be able to rejoin the team.
Prior to Monday’s Jets vs. Bills showdown, Rodgers spoke about the importance of manifesting and speaking what one wishes to see into existence.
“I visualize [winning the Super Bowl] all the time,” Rodgers said recently, per The Athletic. “That’s part of training your mind and being intentional with your words about the manifestation of those thoughts and goals and dreams into reality. You first have to have that belief. I believe strongly in that. That’s why we talk about it, we don’t shy away from it.”
Mahomes, for his part, can relate to Rodgers’ injury. He was dealing with a kneecap dislocation injury when the Chiefs faced off against the Green Bay Packers — Rodgers’ then-team — in 2019. While the Packers took home the win, the Chiefs defeated them in another regular season match two years later in 2021.
The duo may be rivals in football, but both Rodgers and Mahomes have previously spoken about being good pals off the field. They were featured in several State Farm commercials together in 2019. The following year, Rodgers praised Mahomes for his talent.
“I love my buddy and State Farm ally Pat Mahomes,” Rodgers said in an interview with The Ringer in August 2020. “Just the way he plays really reminds me of myself and I say that with the utmost amount of respect and humility just because I love watching him play because he runs around, he makes throws all over the place, he no-look passes and he does it with enough balance between swagger and humility.”
Mahomes, for his part, opened up about his dynamic with Rodgers during a press conference in January 2020. When asked about if he goes to Rodgers for guidance, he replied, “I haven’t even thought about that. I might need to. I do have a relationship where I can talk to him and text him and do stuff like that.”
