You didn't know the big NFL star who congratulated you on your $700 million contract! "Otani's world was all about baseball"
Jul 23, 2024
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The fact that Mahomes sent a congratulatory message to Ohtani, who signed a megaton-class FA contract last winter, is becoming a hot topic as LA Dodgers Shohei Ohtani reportedly did not know who the best star of the NFL, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, was until last year.
On December 10 last year, Ohtani announced on his SNS that he signed a contract with the Dodgers. Immediately, local media reported 'The terms of the contract are $700 million for 10 years, the largest in North American professional sports ever.'
As soon as the news broke, Mahomes sent a congratulatory message to Ohtani on his SNS. He said "Hey, what do you like! "Congratulations (Bro like what! Congrats to him!)," he wrote, adding three smiling emojis.
Before Ohtani signed with the Dodgers, Mahomes was the most expensive player in North American professional sports. Ohtani broke Mahomes' record of signing an extended contract for 10 years and $450 million in July 2020. Mahomes joined Kansas City in 2017 and is currently the best NFL star to win two-time MVP and three-time Super Bowl MVP and championship.
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Ohtani, who stepped on U.S. soil when he joined the Los Angeles Angels in 2018, has played for six years until last year, focusing only on baseball without looking elsewhere. However, when he moved to the Dodgers last winter, he is likely to find out that Mahomes is the most famous and the most expensive player in the NFL. Usually, sports players are interested in the top star player to some extent even if the sport is different, but Ohtani was not.
Ken Rosenthal, a reporter for The Athletic, told this anecdote in an article titled `The Inclusive Relationships That Protected Shohei Ohtani-Until They Didn't' on the 22nd (Korean time).
According to the article, Ohtani was not interested in other sports during his time with the Angels. An official familiar with Ohtani said in the article, "He didn't even know who Patrick Mahomes was" he said.
Rosenthal said, `Otani created a vacuum by establishing an exclusive and dynamic relationship with interpreter Mizuhara Ifei and agent Nez Valero that no one else could come close to him.' According to an Angels official, 'Otani's world was all about baseball and Valero's world was all about Ohtani.
Former Angels manager Joe Maddon also told Rosenthal that Otani lacked social life. Nothing else happened to him as he went back and forth from the ballpark to the accommodation." In other words, while Maddon was at the helm of the Angels from 2020 to early June 2022, he had never heard or seen what areas Ohtani was interested in other than baseball.
jhno@sportschosun.com
