💸 Patrick Mahomes & The Chiefs Both Win

Patrick Mahomes earned the richest contract in North American sports history by being young, excellent and willing to commit his career to one team. [View in browser]( [FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS] In today’s FOX Sports Insider: Patrick Mahomes is the most exhilarating player in the most popular sport in the country, making his record-setting $503 million deal a win for everyone involved ... Major League Baseball has released a modified 60-game season schedule, highlighted by several must-see matchups ... and Swaggy P gives us a laugh with his impressive Allen Iverson-Tyronn Lue reenactment. The question of “what would you do with $503 million” isn’t a problem many of us are likely to have to wrestle with, not unless an opportune lottery win is just around the corner. In truth, it’s not a conundrum that’s going to present itself for anyone in the National Football League soon either, despite Patrick Mahomes’ record-smashing contract revelation on Monday. The agents that operate within the National Football League’s realm love benchmarks. They love big numbers. They love for other people and other people’s clients to get paid, big time, because it makes it that much easier to use comparative negotiation when their guy is up for renewal. When Mahomes got paid, the NFL’s player pool didn’t get jealous, it got excited. The only problem is, this one is a little different. [STORY IMAGE 1] When Aaron Rodgers got $134 million over four years, it was spectacularly good news for Russell Wilson. When Jared Goff got $110 million guaranteed, it was good news for everybody. When Ben Roethlisberger got $68 million over two years, it set the bar for late-career top-tier veterans. A lot of people will think that Mahomes’ blockbuster deal for half a billion dollars, spread out over a decade, will raise the market to even further heights. But maybe not so fast. Yes, every elite QB is now going to be targeting an annual pay scale that starts above $40 million per year. But, with a couple of notable exceptions, they may have a tough time getting it. Here’s the rub. Every other QB, or his agent, is trying to convince ownership to part with that money by selling a dream. That’s what agents do. “This is your QB for the next decade,” they say. “This is the player to lift your franchise. This is the guy to be the face of the team. The ‘one’ to finally win you a Super Bowl.” Lots of contracts have been inked on the expectation of a tilt at a championship. Most of those fantasies fade into reality, then nothingness. And let’s not forget that even in the scheme of the NFL’s mega finances, $30 million is still a lot of money. Only six players topped that last year. Getting to $30 million implies a level of certainty and permanence. Going above that, you need to have some extra parts tacked on. [STORY IMAGE 2] Wilson, Rodgers and Roethlisberger were all Super Bowl champions with several years standing. Goff and Carson Wentz had, at the time, the vibe of being the future of NFL quarterbacking working in their favor. Matt Ryan had a decade of elite performance under his belt. Moving forward, it will take a lot to get into the discussion at $35 million and even more to talk about $40 million, which is where Dak Prescott would love to get the Dallas Cowboys to. For the higher figure, Lamar Jackson and Deshaun Watson have the best immediate shot at it, but even that is not certain. How then, did Mahomes get to $503 million? Just how do you get to $50 million per year? For a start, you get there by being young and excellent and coupling that by being willing to commit essentially the entirety of your productive career to one team. “The best player in the sport, the most talented player maybe ever to play his position, made an affirmative choice at age 24 that he wants to spend the entirety of the prime of his career playing for the Chiefs,” [FOX Sports’ Nick Wright told First Things First.]( [STORY IMAGE 3] You get there by having already shown you are capable of leading the organization to a Super Bowl, not by having teased the potential of it, but by actually lifting your colleagues on your shoulders and getting the job done. That’s why the Chiefs sounded positively gleeful when announcing the deal. “This is a significant moment for our franchise,” Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt said. “Patrick has developed into one of the most prolific athletes in all of sports. With his dynamic play and infectious personality, he is one of the most recognized and beloved figures to put on the Chiefs uniform.” Even that’s not enough to get you to half a billion dollars. It also comes from having a transcendent style of play that is unlike anything we have truly seen before, a form of technical expression that also happens to be thrilling and exhilarating to watch. And, oh yeah, by being a handsome, eloquent, likable character that is the perfect face for a franchise that isn’t interested in the small steps anymore - and wants to become a true NFL powerhouse. Even if quarterbacks start to collect increased numbers on a per year basis, the length of contract is what is likely to make this record stand out, and linger, for a long time. [STORY IMAGE 4] “This is baseball money,” [former Pro Bowl running back Brian Westbrook told First Things First.]( “Patrick Mahomes got the better end of the deal. He’s only started 36 games in his career, he had two years left on his deal and he got a team to commit to him for 10 additional years. Ten years is a very long time.” Indeed it is. Who knows what the NFL looks like a decade from now, and whether a 34-year-old Mahomes is still doing his electrifying thing in Kansas City. Long quarterback deals have been struck in the NFL before, most of them did not play out to fruition. Sports Illustrated described the contract as “gigantic, hilarious, American and great,” and it is. It is an absurd amount of money, unfathomable really, but if the most exhilarating player in the most popular sport in a country of 300 million people isn’t going to get it, who is? It must be pretty good to be Patrick Mahomes, Crown Prince of the NFL, dreaming up ways to turn one title into a dynasty…and trying to figure out how to spend all that money. [STORY IMAGE 5] Here’s what others have said ... Terez Paylor, Yahoo Sports: “Mahomes’ historic deal could go down as the richest in the history of American professional sports. It also will increase the degree of difficulty for the Chiefs’ front office, though admittedly not as much as it could have had Mahomes insisted on tying a portion of the deal to a percentage of the cap, something agents across the league were hoping he’d do.” Bill Barnwell, ESPN: “Typically, if a player is good enough to justify this long of a contract, it's better for him to take a shorter deal and either get a crack at free agency or use the threat of free agency to negotiate a market-value deal. The cap has grown at a faster rate than most NFL contracts and seems extremely likely to rise dramatically in the medium term once the league negotiates new television contracts. The only way a player would be able to justify signing a deal of this length would be if his team were willing to both guarantee the majority of the contract and pay him like a star the whole way. The Chiefs are practically guaranteeing the entire deal, and while the contract isn't tied to a percentage of the salary cap, Mahomes would be compensated handsomely if he played out the entire deal.” Mike Tanier, Bleacher Report: “(Patrick) Mahomes is about to become his own brand, his own industry. He'll be the face of American sports to the world once American sports are ready to face the world again. Mahomes can become a fashion trend-setter if he wants. Or an influential sociopolitical voice who stands for whatever he chooses. He could make a movie with SpongeBob. Heck, he could do all three at once. But even if he just quietly plays football and makes a few ketchup commercials, he will still have an aura about him. He'll be looked upon as a role model whose opinions and choices will matter because he's already done so much to grab our attention and capture our imagination.” [IN OTHER WORDS] - Only 150 players have been named to the NBA Hall of Fame since its inaugural 1959 class. [Bleacher Reports’ Greg Swartz predicts]( how many future Hall of Famers are on current NBA rosters. - With the restart of the NBA season quickly approaching, [ESPN senior writer Baxter Holmes]( looks at how long it will take players to get into “game shape” after the extended layoff. - Major League Baseball released its modified 60-game season schedule, which is set to begin on July 23. [R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports ranks]( the 2020 Opening Day Matchups. [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED] [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED]( Nick Young is known for delivering comical moments throughout his NBA career. Swaggy P was at it again this week, creating this must-see video while playing basketball with his son. Watch Young hit the shot and then reenact the famous Allen Iverson-Tyronn Lue play when Iverson made a shot and emphatically stepped over Lue during the 2001 NBA Finals. Unfortunately for Young’s adorable baby boy, he plays the role of Lue in this instance. One can’t help but to let out a smile after watching this delightful video. [VIEWER'S GUIDE] 2017 WWE Royal Rumble (FS1, 8 p.m. ET) Randy Orton was crowned the champion of the 30th annual Royal Rumble, while John Cena defeated AJ Styles to capture his 13th WWE Championship. Premier League Soccer: Manchester City vs. Newcastle (Wednesday, NBCSN, 9:55 a.m. ET) Manchester City will look to take one step closer to securing second place in the Premier League when they play host to Newcastle United. Premier League Soccer: Brighton vs. Liverpool (Wednesday, NBCSN, 12:10 p.m. ET) Liverpool has topped Brighton in 26 of the clubs’ last 30 matchups. The Reds will attempt to total the most points and wins in English top-flight history. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( Patrick Mahomes to win regular season MVP: +425 Following an unforgettable MVP season in 2018, followed by a Super Bowl title in 2019, and with the richest contract ever in hand, you might want to take a look at the Chiefs' superstar QB to win his second ever MVP award at more than 4-to-1 odds. Lamar Jackson (+600) and Russell Wilson (+700), meanwhile, are the only other players with better than 10-1 MVP odds. A new FOX Sports app and website is coming. [Click here]( to be notified when the reimagined app is available. [WHAT THEY SAID] "An athlete can’t run with money in his pockets. 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