Tom Brady knows a thing or two about rehabbing from a torn ACL, and he has some advice for Patrick Mahomes, whose 2025 season ended abruptly with a torn ACL in his left knee.
Mahomes was injured late in the Chiefs’ Week 15 loss to the L.A. Chargers when contact from behind forced the knee into an unstable position. According to NFL insider Ian Rapoport, Mahomes also tore his LCL ( lateral collateral ligament), and fortunately, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said his superstar quarterback avoided further serious damage beyond that.
From a medical standpoint, an ACL reconstruction typically carries a nine-to-12-month recovery window for quarterbacks. When secondary ligament structures are involved, timelines can vary a bit more, not necessarily because of pain tolerance but due to biological healing limits and increased re-injury risk.
In an appearance on the December 15 episode of the “Let’s Go!” podcast, Brady was asked about his experience while recovering from a very similar injury, and he had some strong words of advice for Mahomes.
Brady’s Knee Injury Had Some Similarities to Mahomes’
Brady, who sustained a left ACL tear in early on in his 2008 campaign, was back on the field the following year in 2009, and he won the NFL Comeback Player of the Year award that year.
The seven-time Super Bowl winner returned for the 2029 season without any restrictions and resumed his elite play, proving that a QB can regain full effectiveness after a significant knee injury if the recovery process is solid. Brady won four of his seven Lombardi’s after he suffered the torn ACL.
Both he and Mahomes tore their respective ACL’s in their ninth NFL seasons, so Brady knows what the Chiefs QB is going through.
“I think I did it in the exact same year that he did it,” Brady said on the podcast. “I was at the beginning of the season his is much closer to the end. It’s a it’s a tough injury, but I know one thing about Patrick: He’s very tough. He’s very resilient. He’s going to work extremely hard to get back. You see these ACL tears happen a lot in the NFL, and it’s tough to see it happen because you have these incredible athletes that are at the top of their game.”
Tom Brady on Patrick Mahomes’ ACL Tear: ‘Focus on What’s Ahead’
GettyCommentator and NFL legend Tom Brady offered Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes some advice on how to prepare mentally and physically after a torn ACL.
When ‘Let’s Go!” hosts Jim Gray and Matthew Stafford asked Brady what advice he could offer Mahomes, Brady suggested Mahomes has what it takes to come back unscathed.
“The only thing you can do is focus on what’s ahead of you and not look back and just say, ‘OK, this is part of what my career is going to be.’ A lot of people have gone through it and a lot of people have overcome it,” Brady said, adding:
“You’ve just got to put diligence into the rehab process. And I always feel like the faster you rehab, the faster you can get back to practicing the sport that you love. I think sometimes people will pace themselves. Instead of training mode, they’re in rehab mode. You’ve got to get through rehab mode as fast as possible — and then you get back to training mode. But that requires an all out commitment. It’s the same commitment that the great professional athletes make to be great at their profession. When you go to the rehab process, you need that same level of focus and determination.”
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