Six years before Patrick Mahomes sprinted out of the flame-flanked tunnel at Arrowhead Stadium as the Chiefs’ starting quarterback, he ran out on the field at Wildcat Stadium to make his second start as Whitehouse High School’s varsity signal caller.
On that rainy night, the Wildcats were hosting Sulphur Springs for the annual homecoming game in the town just south of Tyler, Texas.
In any other game, Mahomes would’ve exited midway through so that fellow quarterback Ryan Cheatham could rotate in at the position.
With two talented gunslingers, then-offensive coordinator Adam Cook decided the best way to handle the position was to evenly split playing time between Mahomes and Cheatham — at least until one distinguished himself from the other.