Patrick Mahomes didn't exactly consider his Pro Bowl appearance to be a good consolation prize for missing out on Super Bowl LVI.
The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, speaking to ESPN's Lisa Salters during Sunday's Pro Bowl broadcast, did acknowledge that he was having a good time in the NFL's All-Star Game, but he had something a bit bigger weighing on his mind.
"Yeah, I mean, it still hurts," Mahomes said, via Charles Goodman of Yahoo Sports. "You want to be in that Super Bowl, but you enjoy this. It's an honor to be in the Pro Bowl, and so to be able to be in the Pro Bowl with a lot of my teammates, see their families, it's a good way to cap off the season for us."
Mahomes continued, sharing that he still was thinking about his team's brutal collapse in last Sunday's AFC Championship game, in which the Chiefs coughed up a 21-3 lead and fell to Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals in overtime.
"I'm still not over it," said Mahomes, who finished the Pro Bowl with 53 yards and an interception on 5-of-10 passing. "I don't think I'll be over it until we're playing in another Super Bowl. So I'll use that as motivation going forward."
After the AFC Championship, Chiefs coach Andy Reid shouldered the blame for the loss, even though Mahomes committed a pair of costly errors with a questionable passing attempt in the second quarter and an interception in overtime.
Regardless of who is responsible for the Chiefs' collapse -- and how Mahomes is feeling about it one week later -- it will be the Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI, which is scheduled for Feb. 13 at 6:30 p.m. ET.
