- - Tom Brady Says Patrick Mahomes Will Have to 'Work Extremely Hard' to Recover from ACL Tear

Sean NeumannDecember 17, 2025 at 4:28 AM

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Mitchell Leff/Getty; Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty

Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes -

Tom Brady shared what advice he'd give Patrick Mahomes following the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback's ACL injury

Mahomes tore the ACL in his left knee during the final minutes of Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Chargers

Brady said he'd tell Mahomes: "You got to get through rehab mode as fast as possible"

Tom Brady is offering up advice to Patrick Mahomes, after the Kansas City Chiefs announced the quarterback had successful knee surgery on his torn ACL.

Brady, who tore his ACL in the opening game of the 2008 NFL season and later came back to win four more Super Bowls, said on the Let’s Go! podcast on Monday, Dec. 15 that Mahomes’ injury is “a tough” one but he knows the Chiefs quarterback is “very resilient.”“He’s going to work extremely hard to get back,” Brady, 48, told host Jim Gray.

Asked what he’d tell Mahomes if he could speak with the injured quarterback, Brady said he’d tell the 30-year-old quarterback to remember that “this is part of what my career is going to be” and that “other people have gone through it.”

"You've just got to put as much diligence into the rehab process," Brady said. "I always feel like the faster you rehab, the faster you can get back to practicing the sport that you know you love. I think sometimes people will pace themselves. Instead of training mode, they're in rehab mode. I think you got to get through rehab mode as fast as possible, and then you get back to training mode.”

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Patrick Mahomes

Brady added that rehabbing that way “requires an all-out commitment.”

"It's the same commitment that the great professional athletes make to be great at their profession,” the retired quarterback-turned-broadcaster said. “When you go through the rehab process, you need that same level of focus and determination. It's a tough rehab. It's one of the toughest rehabs."

Mahomes injured his left knee during the final minutes of Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers as the Chiefs were attempting to complete a season-saving drive, down 16-13. A replay shown on the CBS broadcast appeared to show the two-time NFL MVP’s left leg pop in a manner that’s often associated with torn ligaments in the knee. Mahomes remained down for several minutes before being helped off the field, as the Chiefs went on to lose the game, officially eliminating them from the NFL playoffs for the first time in more than a decade.

"There have been some pretty good quarterbacks who have had the same injury, and they've done pretty well after they came back,” head coach Andy Reid told reporters on Monday. “He'll get after it, and he's got good people here to rehab him. He'll be right on top of all of that."

In Brady’s case, the seven-time Super Bowl champion missed the entirety of the 2008 NFL season but successfully returned by the start of the 2009 season and led the New England Patriots back to the playoffs. Brady said this week on the Let’s Go! podcast that he never feared his career was over following his ACL injury, but admitted the rehab process was “tough.”

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Tom Brady

To this day, Brady said effects of the injury still linger: “My [left] knee, it doesn’t feel like my right knee, the one that didn’t get injured, so there’s always a little reminder in my left knee.”

“I just remember, every day, pushing myself,” Brady said about his recovery. “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’re on the road to recovery.”

Mahomes addressed the injury in a social media post late Sunday night, vowing to come back “stronger than ever.”“Don’t know why this had to happen. And not going to lie, it hurts,” Mahomes wrote. “But all we can do now is trust in God and attack every single day over and over again. Thank you, Chiefs kingdom, for always supporting me and for everyone who has reached out and sent prayers. I will be back stronger than ever ⏰.”

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Source: “AOL Sports”