This Week's Sports Hero & Zero: Patrick Mahomes, Zach Johnson

by Julian Spivey

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Hero

The Word on Pop Culture’s sports hero for the week truly could be the entire Kansas City Chiefs roster and staff for winning Super Bowl LVIII over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, February 11 but I want the honor to be a bit more limiting than that – so who better to give it to than the man who led the Chiefs offense down the field in overtime searching for and reaching that game-winning touchdown.
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Patrick Mahomes won his third career Super Bowl M.V.P. honor on Sunday night and he’s only 28 years old. Mahomes’s accolades and dominance over the first six years of his career (not counting the 2017 rookie year, in which he only played in one game), including three Super Bowl titles and two league M.V.P. awards among other things have sealed the deal as far as him having the greatest start to a career in NFL history. In the minds of some, he’s already one of the three greatest quarterbacks in league history along with Tom Brady and Joe Montana. I’m not sure he should be placed above five-time NFL M.V.P. Peyton Manning just yet but he’s already won more Super Bowls than Manning did, so I can understand why some are already doing so.

At times early in Super Bowl LVIII, Mahomes and the Chiefs didn’t look all that impressive – much like they had at many times throughout the regular season – but at the end of the day Mahomes had 333 passing yards, two touchdown passes, was 34-for-46 passing and ran for a team-high 66 yards. It seems that when the game is on the line – and in fact, more so when the Chiefs are behind on the biggest stage – Mahomes becomes the Football Superman that he is. In all three Super Bowl wins Mahomes has led the Chiefs from second-half deficits to win the game.

Often in today’s sports world the more dominant and awesome an athlete is the more the majority of fans seem to dislike them – which seems to be a new world phenomenon, as I don’t remember this same feeling of athletes like Michael Jordan in the past – but I hope most football fans will take a moment to appreciate the greatness they’re witnessing out of Mahomes and get used to it because there are no signs of it ending soon. 

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Zero

Charley Hoffman won the PGA Tour’s Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale in Scottsdale, Ariz. over the last weekend in a playoff finish over Nick Taylor but the biggest story to come out of that tournament was the behavior of the spectators, who turned the event into a drunken party that included 54 arrests for things like intoxication and fights.
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Those in charge of the tournament have vowed to change the fan experience for the event in 2025 but honestly, the tournament and the PGA Tour have done so much to build up the party aspect of this tournament and venue that I can’t help but put much of the blame on them. Of course, spectators shouldn’t be having drunken brawls, falling out of the stands, doing “sand angels” in the bunkers, etc. but when you market something as a party atmosphere you shouldn’t be surprised when the types of things you’d occasionally see at parties happen at your event.

I’m not sure what the tournament can and will do to try to get rid of this behavior without harming itself. I imagine some sort of alcohol limitation but that also will cost the tournament money.

But again, like with my sports hero of the week, I’d like to pinpoint a sports zero of the down to one person, and that person this week is PGA Tour veteran and multiple-time major tournament winner Zach Johnson.

There were a handful of PGA golfers who seemed irritated with the behavior of the spectators over the weekend, including Billy Horschel and Jordan Spieth, but Johnson seemed to be the most outspoken. The 47-year-old golfer could be heard admonishing the crowd at one point saying: “I’m just sick of it. Just shut up!.” After the event, Johnson would tell the media: “This tournament has been inappropriate and crossed the line since I’ve been on tour, and this is my 21st year.”

My advice to Johnson would simply be, “Don’t come back.” This tournament can and will exist without Zach Johnson.

I’ve been a golf fan for more than 25 years but one thing that I’ve always found laughable, in particular, is how golfers react to any noise whatsoever while they’re “in the zone” – this was what Horschel had an incident with fans about too. In every other major sport in the world, the athletes compete at the top level with incredibly loud venues. Are you telling me these guys can’t focus and hit a motionless golf ball with a bit of noise while you have baseball players at any and every level hitting a moving target with all hell breaking loose around them?
I don’t feel sorry for these guys.

Yes, the spectators at the Phoenix Open have gotten worse over the last few years. Just two years ago there were zero arrests made at the tournament. But I can’t help but think that reactions like the kind had by Johnson over the weekend aren’t making their sport look worse.