Back in February 2024, Patrick Mahomes was steering straight toward football immortality. A third Lombardi in sight, back-to-back glory just a game away. But somehow, the script twisted. Somewhere between the hype videos and game-plan meetings came a gut-punch call from Texas. His dad had been arrested for drunk driving, clocking a staggering 0.23 BAC when an officer pulled him over. The world saw his game face. But behind the noise of confetti and crowd roars was the sharp static of family trouble.

Pat Mahomes Sr., the former MLB player who’d taught the Chiefs‘ QB the proper grip of a football, soon pleaded guilty, receiving a 10-day jail stint along with probation, license suspension, ignition interlock, and mandatory AA meetings. The sentence landed in the quiet after the Super Bowl parade, but the shadow had already been there. And now, after years of silence, Patrick has finally opened that locked chapter, letting us hear his side for the first time.

“It was during that Super Bowl week. It became a story, and so I had to answer questions about it,” Mahomes said in the ESPN docuseries “The Kingdom,” which is set to air on August 14 this year. “I think just knowing that it hurt me, woke him up to know that like you can’t keep doing the same things.” Mahomes’ dad was arrested just eight days before the Chiefs’ Super Bowl clash against the 49ers.

Fast forward to August 9, and the Chiefs’ quarterback sent a message to his dad, wishing him a happy birthday. “Happy birthday pops!!” Mahomes wrote in his Instagram story, sharing a throwback picture of the father-son duo from the gridiron. Following Pat’s arrest, which shook not only the baseball world but the football world as well, Patrick was forced to field questions about his dad’s arrest. It was the Super Bowl week, and Patrick was already at the center of attention.

Then came the Super Bowl opening night in early February 2204. The Chiefs QB was asked about his dad’s arrest. Mahomes addressed it, albeit briefly and in a controlled manner. “He’s doing good,” the 29-year-old quarterback responded while also adding, “I don’t really want to get into it too much, but he’s doing good for whatever the situation is. It’s a family matter. I’ll just keep it to the family, and that’s all I really have to say at this point.”

Fast forward to now, Pat Mahomes Sr. just marked his 55th birthday, and his son finally peeled back the curtain on that arrest in a docuseries. He admits it stung, no question. But the way he speaks about it now makes one thing clear. The Mahomes family has long since turned that page.

Pat Mahomes Sr. was embarrassed after his arrest

Last year’s arrest wasn’t Pat Mahomes Sr.’s first brush with a DWI charge. He’s already faced similar convictions in 2008 and 2019, each ending with guilty pleas. But the 2024 incident cut deeper. With his son just days away from the Super Bowl spotlight, the timing turned a private mistake into a public spectacle. It left him wrestling with the kind of embarrassment only a father can feel.

In ESPN’s “The Kingdom,” docuseries, Patrick Mahomes’ dad admitted how he felt after his son was forced to face the media after his arrest. “It kind of hit home before the Super Bowl last year, when I got in trouble,” Pat Sr. said. “For him to have to answer questions about me, you know, was probably the most embarrassing thing that I’ve ever been through in my life.”

He went on and claimed that he hadn’t had a drink ever since that incident unfolded in the public’s eye. “I called him right after … I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry that it’s taken away from your time and focus.’ … I made a vow that he would never have to deal with anything because of drinking because of me. I haven’t had a drink since then.” That phase was tough for Pat Mahomes, and so was the road to recovery.

After all, Pat Sr. was not just a father to the Chiefs’ quarterback. In fact, he was also a granddad to Patrick and Brittany’s children. While addressing it in the docuseries, Brittany talked about her father-in-law’s road to recovery after the arrest. “I think it finally hit him that, you know, ‘I have my kids watching me, I have my grandkids now that are watching me,” she said.

“The Kingdom,” set to air next week, is the product of two-time Emmy Winner Kristen Lappas. Kristen spent 120 hours gathering interviews with the Mahomes family. What she didn’t anticipate was Pat Mahomes Sr. opening up about the incident at all. That said, stay tuned for August 14 as Patrick Mahomes and his family address one of the toughest phases of their lives.